We left our heroes in Greyhawk City, selling off their latest stash of loot. and wondering what next would come their way. The following two weeks passed quietly enough, though they received word through the Society that a convocation of their allies would be held the following day (the 3rd of Sunsebb).

Before the event, Wilfred returned to the Grey College to ask after “Crazy Larry” and his health, but met instead with Yulin Hussein, his assistant and unofficial “keeper”. Yulin assured Wilfred that Larry was doing better, and that while his outburst at the Green Dragon Inn was atypical, he often became increasingly irrational as the new year approached. The forthcoming turn of the century might simply be affecting him more than usual.

As it turned out, despite fears that the convocation would be a target, it came off without a hitch. The Harpers and their allies on Beregond had the ritual sites there under close watch, and the Republic and the Wizards of High Sorcery on Krynn were prepared as well. Liga’s sites would be monitored by a combination of the Society, auxiliaries of the Circle of Eight, as well as volunteers from the huchard of Celene, and a selection of other groups who’d been won over to the cause.

Among other matters discussed at the meeting was that while seven sites had been identified on Liga as probable ritual locations, one site in particular, an eighth site, appeared to have no ritual associated with it. This was though odd for two reasons, the first being that in terms of ley line density, it was the equal of Glamour in the sheer number and volume of ley lines that converged there. The other reason was that Meroln had recently been Teleported there by Crazy Larry when he’d rushed to Jenny’s defense at the Green Dragon Inn.

After the convocation, Elerra communed with Ellistrae to determine whether or not that site should be monitored as well, and was told that yes, it should be watched.

Four days later, several members of the group heard an explosion in the vicinity of the Grey College, and moved to investigate. Wilfred, in particular, noticed a huge humanoid form arcing out of the explosion’s nexus, flying north-east at a high rate of speed. Arriving at the scene, he discovered that the trail of destruction led directly to Crazy Larry’s basement apartments, where he found Yulin lying among the rubble.

Yulin bore several deep bruises consistent with having been beaten before having the ceiling dropped on him, and a number of those bruises also bore signs of having been charged with elemental energy (acid burns, frostbite, gravel, etc.). Though clearly shaken, Yulin remained deeply reticent about the cause, saying only that Larry was completely off the rails and that he needed to be stopped, and the Brethren brought together to do so.

Not knowing Larry’s destination (other than roughly in the direction of Tenser’s ruined castle), Wilfred sought out his informants in the Society while Elerra remained on site helping to heal those injured in the explosion. Unfortunately, not much was truly known about Larry, except that he was very old, on the order of more than 200 years, and had looked as old at the founding of the Grey College as he did in the present. Over the centuries, when he had been an active teacher, he had primarily dealt in either elemental spell-craft or chaos magic.

Perhaps six hours later, another explosion was heard in the city, this time in the harbor district. Arriving on the scene, Meroln was especially alarmed, as the smoking ruins of the Green Dragon Inn looked to hold few if any survivors. Witnesses on the scene reported that as before, a huge humanoid form, wreathed in fire, had fallen from the skies, crashed through the roof, and moments later the entire structure had detonated as the flaming man leapt once more into the sky, dragging with him by the hair the comely barmaid Meroln had grown to care for. They further reported that his path led west/north-west, roughly in the direction of Tovag Baragu, the eighth site identified by the Society.

The party promptly Teleported there, aware that they would have time before Larry’s arrival. Unlike Meroln’s previous visit, someone had placed a sacrificial stone at the center of the plinths, with a humanoid form already impressed into it. Furthermore, a hundred figures in black robes stood ready for some ritual, standing with their backs to the stone menhirs. As the party prepared to deal with these intruders, they quickly noticed six other individuals who appeared nearby as well.

Alexia (of course) recognized Murlynd, and Wilfred knew Zagyg’s appearance as well. Squizzles quickly identified Heward, Kelanen, Krovis, and Keoghtom. As the party realized that a hawk in flight overhead was stilled in flight, the six hero deities assembled pronounced a blessing on the party, granting them a 5 bonus they could use in whatever fashion they desired each round (to AC, attacks, saves, skills, caster level, etc., divided up to suit themselves (3 attack/+2 AC, etc.)).

As the assembled hero deities faded away (without having answered any questions) Larry and Jenny arrived on the scene. Larry landed at the head of the stone like a thunderbolt, slamming Jenny down on the stone (which flowed over her limbs, pinning her in place). While several members of the group were ambivalent about the scenario playing itself out, several chose to attack Larry while Meroln attempted to strike the bonds from Jenny’s limbs.

While Jenny lay trapped, she could be seen whispering, apparently to herself. Sam read her lips, and that she was saying “Carassamon, I require your aid!” It was also at about this time that Elerra and Wilfred noticed an invisible presence on the battlefield, one that proved to be ethereal as well, charging Elerra the moment she used her armor’s etherealness; forcing her back to the material plane.

Finally having freed Jenny, Meroln scooped her up and tried to fly away with her, but Larry first blasted them with a blast of acid, cold, electricity and flame, and them cast a massive Earthen Grasp spell that seized them in midair and smashed them both against the ground. While this was going on, the deva that Elerra had summoned earlier hemmed out the running cultists with a Blade Barrier, and a colossal, ancient wyrm red dragon arrived through the menhirs that Squizzles quickly identified as Carassamon, one of Liga’s oldest living dragons.

With the dragon’s arrival on the field, Alexia and Wilfred had a clearly evil target to focus on, so they abandoned their assault on Larry to deal with it instead. Sam queried Larry about why he’d done what he’d done, and was answered that “I am ”/wikis/dorgha-torgu" class=“wiki-page-link”> Dorgha Torgu! My sins against the elements and man will be forgiven if I can slay this titan before it’s plans come to fruition! Why do you help it? We can end this now, if we work together!"

Her identity now out in the open, Jenny crawled out from under the Earthen Grasp and assumed the form of a massive, five headed dragon. As Carassamon dispelled the Blade Barrier (appearing to tear it asunder with his forelimbs), her ethereal guardian (actually a xill matriarch known as ‘Mother Fess’) fought the deva. Before Carassamon fell, he blasted Alexia, Wilfred, and Squizzles with his breath, and while it hurt them badly, it wasn’t quite enough to slay any of them. Squizzles finally brought him down with a well placed strike of his rapier.

With the ancient red out of play, the group focused their attacks on Jenny/Dhaeros, who proved able to mix spells in with her breath weapons, laying about herself with abandon, but in the end the group whittled away at her health, despite her sacrifice of half the cultists present feeding her their strength. Meroln struck the final blow with a heavy heart, plunging the morganti dagger into her heart. With the titan slain, the remaining cultists fled, as did Mother Fess.

As the group searched the battlefield, they discovered that the cultists present all seemed to be from the Plateau of Va, down in G’dar to the deep south (the pale, dark haired near-men). Larry, or as they now knew him to be, Dorgha Torgu, stood a bit taller than any of them remembered, and for the first time his gaze seemed clear and his mien untroubled. His ripped garments morphed themselves into the traditional garb of the Paynims who were the current masters of the region, and he thanked the group for their aid, and apologized that his madness had prevented him from being able to properly articulate the matter earlier. As the group prepared to depart, he sat at the center of Tovag Baragu, the stones of which had begun to tremble and right themselves. “I have much to set right, my friends. Visit me again some time!”

On their return to Greyhawk, there were no cheering crowds, no parades. Most folk were unaware that anything had happened, but the Church of Boccob and Grey College turned out to thank the group for their efforts. As the new year approached, they maintained their watch at the other ritual sites,and easily scattered the few who arrived to attempt the ritual anyway.

As the new year proceeded, the effects of the First and Second Marks slowly faded, though the inability to modify enchanted items after their completion never really went away. The huchard of Celene began sending numerous trade and diplomatic missions to Liga, even trading their precious liftwood on occasion. The world seemed renewed to those who knew how close it had come to being changed forever…

When we left our heroes, they were embroiled in a fight with Tierella Yendil and her followers in the Imperial Palace in Glamour, capital of the Lunar Empire. As the battle raged, the only actual fatality would prove to be Mekkatorque, who was slain by a Destruction spell (though Wilfred was able to resummon him back from wherever the following round). The only truly devastating attack against Tierella proved to be of her own doing, when she attempted to use Enervation against Meroln, but he used his Ring of Spell Turning to reflect it back at her. In the end, once her defenders had fallen, she herself was eventually whittled down and slain by Meroln with the morganti dagger supplied to the group by Morrolan.

Once she fell, the party quickly grabbed the weapons wielded by her defenders and her body and Teleported back to Greyhawk to identify and sell off their spoils….

The following morning the group navigated the halls of the Imperial Palace with a letter of introduction from Kaman to Tierella, the Undersecretary of Arcane Manifestations and Disturbances. The tall, lovely Dragaeran elf met the group in her office, and listened politely as the group outlined the plot to unravel the current arcane weave of magic and replace it with a newer, more “restricted” one. Eventually, however, she asked for proof, and the only corroborating evidence they could produce was the Puzzle Box they’d recovered several weeks earlier.

While Elerra solved the box, Wilfred let slip that a previous Box they’d owned had reacted explosively to use by a priest of Boccob. Tierella admitted that she was no priestess of any sort, but she still called in an assistant to test the box before she herself tried using it. As impressive as the experience of the darkened throne room was, Tierella still demanded more proof, as an empty room would not convince the Red Emperor that an actual threat existed.

The group decided that perhaps the Esoterica might convince her, so they made an appointment for later that afternoon and Teleported back to Greyhawk City, after Wilfred had made arrangements to meet Tenser at the Green Dragon Inn.

Soon after Jenny showed them to one of the Dragon’s back rooms, Tenser arrived. They brought him up on recent events, but he eventually could be seen looking pensive, as though trying to remember something. It soon came to him that one of the seven names on their list of ritual leaders had been Tierella Yendil, and the group had mentioned that the woman they’d met with had been identified as having been of the House of the Yendi in Dragaera. The coincidence, he thought, was a bit too strong to be ignored, as she had positioned herself perfectly if her goal was to carry out the ritual on the moon above the city.

Elerra decided to contact Ellistrae to determine a future course of action, and asked the following questions:

Is Tierella who Tenser believes her to be?Yes

Would killing her now prevent the ritual on the Red Moon?No

Does she have a Clone prepared?Yes

Should we attack her at our scheduled meeting?Uncertain

Would going to the Dragaeran Empire get us more information on her in the time we have to stop the Wane?Uncertain

Based on this information, the group asked Tenser if Mordenkainen might have contacts in the Dragaeran Empire, which Tenser agreed that he might, as he had long made it his business to know who the arcane movers and shakers were across the whole of the world, remarking that his network of informants was rivaled only by Wilfred’s group. Tenser contacted Mordenkainen, who soon joined the group at the Dragon.

As it happened, Mordenkainen did have a contact in Dragaera who would likely know Tierella, and offered to take the group to meet with him. Moments later they found themselves standing in mid-air, apparently hundreds of feet in the air, surrounded by the black stone walls of a massive castle. Within moments of their arrival the group was greeted by a stately Dragaeran woman who asked of their business, and then escorted them to a sitting room to await the lord of the castle, Morrolan.

Morrolan stated that he did not know anyone named Tierella, but did recognize the woman they described as likely being the Sorceress in Green, a possibly Yendi arcanist who had not been seen after a failed plot of hers several years past had resulted in her death and subsequent Resurrection. Based on past experience with her, he warned them that she was a mistress of duplicity and cunning, and her practice of magic stretches back thousands of years. He also confirms that she very likely does possess a Clone, so outright killing her will be merely an inconvenience.

He obligingly provides the party with a magic dagger that has the Morganti property, which he explains will consume the soul of anyone slain with it. He further warns them to keep the dagger sheathed until the last moment, as if she detects it, she will likely seek to flee the field of battle rather than lose her soul to it. This is obvious to everyone, as the mere presence of the weapon unsettles everyone in the room as soon as the case it was stored in is opened. They thanked him, especially after establishing that the weapon was not single-use.

Upon returning to the Green Dragon Inn, an altercation could be heard in the main room. Crazy Larry, one of the founders of the Grey College (and an acquaintance of Wilfred’s) was accosting Jenny, heaping verbal epithets at her and obviously working himself up to physical violence. When Meroln interposed himself between them and lifted Larry off the floor, he quickly found himself Teleported several hundred miles away, arriving in the center of Tovag Baragu, where Wilfred recovered him from later.

Meanwhile, Elerra used her hand crossbow to deliver a dose of her Sleep poison to Larry, who promptly dropped like a stone. For her part, Jenny stated that she didn’t know Larry, or why he’d come in and started harassing her. She wound up taking the rest of the day off, as she was visibly upset. She did stay long enough to kiss Meroln farewell, however.

Feeling the press of time, the group Teleported back to Glamour, and made their way through the halls of the Palace to Tierella’s office in time to make their appointment. Once safely back in her office, they attacked, but the initial attacks didn’t quite bring Tierella low enough to use the dagger. For her part, she created five copies of herself that arrayed themselves around the room, a move that seemed to lessen the damage she took from any one attack. Even Truesight would not reveal the copies as true or false, and as the room slowly filled with her defenders, room to maneuver became a scarce commodity.

One of her defenders proved to be a cleric, that lived just long enough to cast a Heal on her mistress before being slain. Another defender used a Dismissal against Mekkatorque, though he was soon re-summoned by Wilfred. Elerra retreated to the Ethereal Plane hoping to avoid some of the carnage, but several of the defenders proved to be bearing Ghost-touch weapons. She used her Ectoplasmic Metamagic Rod to hit her enemies with a Greater Dispel Magic, a move which actually killed one of the defenders when the Divine Power spell he’d received was stripped away, taking with it the bonus hit points it had granted.

As we broke for the evening, the group was all still standing, but only a few of the defenders fallen, and the battle was only really beginning to get underway…

As we rejoined our companions, they still had guards to deal with. While those in close proximity dealt with them, those who stepped away regrouped into Teleport formation to pursue the inquisitors who had taken Dree. Once this was accomplished, the group left the remaining guards behind and pursued Dree and his captors.

Unfortunately, those captors had had a few moments to prepare a surprise for the party, as rather than arriving where they expected, they found themselves in a 20×20 room. Wilfred and Mekkatorque quickly took to the air, bringing Meroln and Squizzles along for the ride. They quickly discovered that the room was actually a shaft, 120’ in height (with a line scratched into the stone at the 100’ mark. While hovering at the 70’ mark, they felt an AOEDimensional Anchor snap into effect, followed a few moments later by a ghostly hand that penetrated the ceiling above them to deliver a Cannibal Compulsion to Mekkatorque, which caused him to drop Meroln, who then fell to the ground.

Squizzles, who was overcome with disgust at the sight of Mekkatorque’s gusto in tearing at his own flesh, decided to launch himself into flight towards the ceiling, crossing the ‘scratch’, and triggering an Anti-Magic Field which caused Mekkatorque and Wilfred to fall out of the sky, clipping the wings of Alexia, who had also been flying up to see what was going on. Mekkatorque promptly landed on Meroln, who had not yet had a chance to get out of the way.

After several minutes wasted exploring the plain mortared walls of their prison, attempting climb checks, and otherwise stumbling about, the Anti-Magic Field waned, and Elerra’s Locate spell revealed Dree to now be lying in a midden somewhere, with the top of his skull removed. While there was some debate as to whether the ritual that Dree was scheduled to carry out was truly disrupted by his death (given his captor’s obvious interest in it) the group finally decided to Teleport back to Greyhawk to regroup.

Once back in Greyhawk the party realized that it was quite possible that Dree had survived his death at the hands of his captors, as, if he truly was one of the Hierarchs as it was rumored, they had only recently been in the very repository where those worthies stored their Clones against such accidents. This also opened the possibility that Losien might also have had a Clone prepared.

Returning to the crypts to check on the Clones was debated, but since almost two weeks had passed since their visit there, it seemed likely that they had been relocated since then, and there was no telling where Losien might have hidden his, assuming he had one at all. So the group decided instead to Teleport to the underside of the Red Moon and inspect the area for signs of any preparations the followers of Dhaeros might have made there.

Arriving on the surface of the Red Moon they found themselves a but lighter, and found the air thin but breathable. The ground was covered mainly by a variety of moss, and some scrubby-looking trees were visible, all done in shades of carmine and ocher. The only not-red thing in sight was a huge white pylon, 40’ on each of it’s three sides, rising 400’ into the air. The pylon proved to be enameled, and inscribed upon it’s surface were the words “Blessed are the Seven Mothers, Blessed is the Red Moon” in every language the party knew, and many, many more besides.

An examination of the pylon’s base revealed a variety of boot prints, which eventually brought the group to a small shrine perhaps half a mile distant. Meroln also spotted what appeared to be a world not Liga, Celene, or Luna rising above the horizon. Finding nothing definitive, the group eventually decided to Teleport down to the outskirts of Glamour and from there the group made their way into the heart of the Lunar Empire.

While wandering the city looking for an inn, Sam spotted an octopus-headed humanoid kept in a too-small cage in the marketplace. Inquiring of the man who kept the animals on display there, he called the creature a walktapus and demonstrated it’s regenerative abilities by chopping off one of it’s tentacles (which promptly regrew) and then feeding pieces of that tentacle to several other animals. Sam eventually purchased a black-and-white winged kitten from the merchant before moving on.

Eventually taking rooms at the Bed & Flagon, the group spent the better part of the next day or two feverishly making Gather Information checks, trying to ascertain whether the Empire would help or hinder the Wane of Magic if they knew about it. Their travels eventually led them into a local community known as Brithette, a sort of ghetto for expatriates of the Magocracy of Brithos. To his delight, Wilfred was quickly recognized and greeted as a minor celebrity, his work with the Society and the Wane already known to the locals.

As we broke for the evening, Kaman, the local High Priest of Boccob was explaining to the group that if they wanted to pitch their story to the Emperor, the quickest route through his bureaucracy was probably through a group of elves from the Dragarean Empire, who’d come to Glamour three years back and quickly become powerful members of the Court…

Aboard Click-clack’s vessel, Sam soon found himself in a cell, transported there by Click-clack. After several minutes, he came to visit Sam and explained that he’d done this to help Sam avoid “the ladies”. But Sam indicated that he wouldn’t mind seeing the ladies again, so he soon found himself face-to-face with the Furies, who were simply delighted to see their Azamadra again!

After they left to prepare the ‘Mind Sifter’, Sam realized that this “reunion” was something he’d been a fool to ask for, so he escaped his cell by assuming Gaseous Form and entering the ship’s air recycling vents. After becoming Invisible and damaging several doors, he found his way into the Hanger Bay control room, knocked out the drow ensign on duty there, stealing her comm-badge and Walkman in the process.

After this he vented the hanger bay to vacuum, he tried to get back to the door to the main hanger, but wound up killing one guard before being trapped by internal security shields and beamed back into his cell sans equipment. The youngest of the Furies then arrived to finger-waggle at him and inform him that they were almost ready for him.

While Sam sat nude in his cell to consider his options, Click-clack contacted him using Telepathy to inform him that he had good news, and bad news. The bad news was that undergoing the Mind-sifter was going to be excruciatingly painful. The good news was that while Sam was in the Sifter, he’d rewritten the program that would be executed, and that rather than turn Sam into the Furies happy little trained assassin (the role it seemed he’d been born to fulfill) the chair would instead make him a pure alchemist (essentially stripping the Vivisectionist archetype, a move the player had wanted anyway). It would then malfunction (which would increase the pain 10-fold) as several of the ship’s systems experienced power overloads and malfunctions; this should allow Sam’s allies the opportunity to effect his rescue, if in fact they had been trying to do so.

Back under Sanctuary, the rest of the group learned that Losien had succeeded in slaying Mordenkainen, and as Rary and Warnes re-entered the room to see what all the yelling was about, they found the party hovering around and over his body. Fortunately, before wrong conclusions could be drawn, Tenser assured the the other arch-mages that it had been Losien and not the group. On learning that Sam had been teleported away (with Losien’s body) by some form of non-magical means, Rary muttered something about damned Fraal and hurried off, saying that he would attempt to locate them.

As Elerra rested, preparing to Resurrect Mordenkainen, Tenser briefly explained who and what the Fraal were, and claimed to doubt their involvement, as they had as much to lose in the Wane of Magic as anyone. Shortly after Elerra brought Mordenkainen back, Rary returned and announced that he had finally penetrated the ship’s defenses and retrieved Sam.

Though glad to have Sam back, several members of the group urged Rary to also retrieve Losien’s body, so that they could render it un-Resurectable. He then called for an Unseen Servant to bring him his equipment, and he soon drew Losien’s lifeless body out through his scrying bowl and into the room, where the party promptly beheaded him.

The following day the group used an Interplanetary Teleport to Greyhawk (courtesy of Mordenkainen), so that they could consult with the Society of Gnomergan and it’s growing map of Liga’s ley line network. For his part, Mordenkainen added several sections to the map, outlining the regions newly arrived on Liga since the Night of Fire (primarily the islands of Pan Tang, Londra, Melnibone, the so-called Purple Isle, Xoxal, Neulandia, Gashtalund, and Duruzlan).

Further consultation with Kosha revealed that another high probability site had been located, in the far western lands of the Lunar Empire, specifically over the city of Glamour, where a vast number of powerful ley lines converged and appeared to be supporting a small copy (?) of Krynn’s moon, Lunitari in the skies overhead.

Another site had potentially been located in the Emirate of G’dar, specifically a fortress located 15 miles outside a city identified as Zemeth. The two agents who had reported the site had gone silent since their initial report, and the Divination Squad was saying they were dead, but Kosha preferred to reserve judgement. As part of their report, however, they had mentioned sighting a middle-aged man of Oeridian descent (who easily stood out among the local humans, all of whom boasted blue eyes, pure black hair and skin as pale as the Suloise).

Tentatively identifying this as Dree of ixworth, the group retired for the evening, and on the following morning Elerra used a Locate Person to attempt to find Dree. They found him in a dank cell, nailed to a circular wooden disk. With him were four humans wearing hooded black robes, all of whom matched the description of the local humans. The one who seemed in charge asked questions that another translated into Common, but none of the language spells the party kept ready would translate this tongue. In addition, each time the leader spoke, Elerra’s spider birthmark itched, and his words sent shivers of dread and anxiety down Alexia’s back.

The interrogation seemed to center on the ritual the party hoped to stop, and one particularly disturbing line of questions ran along the lines of “… and this ritual will kill ONLY the Gods of Magic? What of the rest?” The party quickly decided to ‘rescue’ Dree from his captors, using a Greater Teleport to arrive in the hallway outside the chamber. For their trouble they found themselves Slowed and unable to act for several seconds after their arrival.

While the party battled the guards and one of the mages from inside the chamber in the hall, those remaining inside blocked the door with a Wall of Void and fled the area with Dree, whom they literally tore off the wall. As we broke for the evening, the group was finishing off the guards and planning to Locate Dree a second time, as they could not allow him to escape….

As the party chewed their way through the Black Skeletons, the Nalfeshnee summoned a second of it’s kind before dying, but the second one didn’t fare any better than the first. Elerra managed to knock Losien out of the fight with her drow poisoned crossbow bolts, lessening the threat from end of the room.

Once the demons and the skeletons had fallen, the Meroln and Alexia made quick work of the necromancers, leaving the others to loot the bodies of the fallen and truss up Losien. Their mission complete, the Teleported back to Narwell and had the Baron lock Losien up in one of the anti-magic cells, while the party identified and split up their swag.

The following day they paid Losien a visit in his cell, where he alternately cursed them for “ruining the plan” and demanded to be taken to see Mordenkainen. Over the course of his “interrogation”, he revealed that he had been Mordenkainen’s agent for the past three years, secretly working behind the scenes against Iuz,the Path, and the Black Rooks while keeping Mordenkainen in the loop on their machinations.

As the party could neither catch him in a lie nor refute any of the points of his story, they slowly began to believe that maybe he might be telling the truth. For his part, he steadfastly refused to impart his information to anyone but Mordenkainen.

Unfortunately, nobody had heard anything from Mordenkainen or the other members of the Circle of Eight since the Scourge of the Archmages back on the 22nd of Patchwall. Alexia, gambling that Murlynd, because of his close connection to the world, might be able to guide her, cast a Divination (and spent a Hero Point) to receive a vision of the place where at the very least, Tenser had gone to hide.

Her vision showed Tenser during the Scourge, fleeing his tower with the Esoterica in hand, arriving in what looked to be a supremely unkempt and downtrodden part of some city or town. He then entered an establishment whose sign featured a unicorn pleasuring itself, spoke a word to the bartender, then entered a private booth and opened a panel leading to a bolt hole down into the sewers. Sometime later, after navigating the twists and turns of the fetid tunnel, he knocked on a section of wall which opened to reveal a clean, brightly lit chamber containing Mordenkainen, Warnes Starcoat, and Rary. Tenser seemed a bit off-put by Rary’s presence, but entered the chamber nonetheless, ending the vision.

Relating the vision to her companions, Squizzles tentatively identified the bar Tenser had entered as the Vulgar Unicorn, a notorious establishment in the city of Sanctuary, rumored to be a backwater port in the Rankan Empire somewhere on Luna, the nearer of Liga’s two moons. The following day the group Teleported to Greyhawk and sought a spelljammer captain who would be willing to transport them to Luna and hence to Sanctuary. The group grudgingly released Losien and returned his equipment to him, though they kept a close eye on him.

After being laughed at by several captains, they finally found one willing to take them there, though he charged them through the nose for the privilege. Finally settling into the comparatively tiny port, Wilfred endeavored to Teleport everyone into the sewers that Alexia had described, but somehow left Sam and Elerra behind. Elerra attempted to use her own Teleport to rejoin the rest, but landed Sam and herself in another part of the sewer, and the group wasted several minutes reuniting. Eventually they located the patch of stone Tenser had opened to reveal Mordenkainen’s Bastion, only to discover that they didn’t know how to open it.

Sam attempted to pick the lock, narrowly avoiding a poison needle but setting off an explosion that damaged several party members. Opening the chamber revealed Tenser and Mordenkainen rushing to see what had happened, and they then greeted the party and Losien. Soon thereafter, Losien went off alone with Tenser and Mordenkainen to give his report.

While the party cooled their heels in the outer chambers, they noticed a display case with the Crystal Frogs (except for the last of the set, which had been destroyed). Not very long after that, the group detected the sounds of combat coming from the direction Tenser, Losien and Mordenkainen had gone off in, and the group arrived in time to see Tenser slumped to the floor at one end of the room while Losien, the Esoterica in hand, was slowly fading to nothingness over Mordenkainen’s body.

Elerra quickly leapt at Losien and keyed her Cube of Force to it’s “block everything” setting, causing Losien to cease his vanishing. Losien responded by smiling evilly, casting a quickened Truesight, and launching into a devastating attack on Elerra. She followed up by dropping the Cube and using a Heal on herself, and then once more fired her hand crossbow at Losien, putting him to sleep once more. Wilfred targeted Losien with a Dimensional Anchor, as Alexia rushed over to kick the Esoterica aside, Sam moved in to deliver a coup de grace, only to find himself and Losien’s slumbering body both now doing the slow fade to nothingness.

As we broke for the evening, the party was catching their collective breath and wondering what to do about Sam’s strange disappearance, while Sam found himself reunited with Click-clack, his erstwhile " father-figure " from his youth…

The party spent the next two days doing some shopping, and planning their journey to Losien’s stronghold in Ghulford, discarding a number of plans before eventually deciding to Teleport a few miles outside the city and hope for the best. Disguised by a Seeming, the group entered Ghulford on the 3rd and took refuge at the Grimacing Skull Inn.

Elerra and Squizzles, neither of whom were actually disguised, elected to scout Losien’s Manor, fining it easily at the far side of the town, but not without incident, as they had to lose an orcish tail in the marketplace. Once back at the inn, Squizzles spent a few hours entertaining the denizens of the inn and learning that Losien had ridden back into town on the 1st and had not been seen since (and that this was not unusual). Elerra decided to try and bluff her way into Losien’s manor, and brought the party along as guards.

Once inside the manor, Elerra and her “guards” were greeted by a Simulacrum of Losien, who quickly rejected her proposed alliance, stating that she was the second drow noble to arrive here with such a proposition, and that for his part, the next two months were to involve too much preparation to divert himself in such affairs. Shut down on her original plan, she used some skillful diplomacy (and a Hero Point) to convince Losien to meet with her anyway.

However, as the simulacra led the party into the bowels of the manor, it became quickly apparent that Losien had seen through the deception almost at once and was leading them into a trap. A number of what proved to be armored Black Skeletons moved to intercept the party’s advance, as an invisible Nalfeshnee demon also attacked. Losien successfully used a Power Word: Blind on Alexia, but she quickly countered it.

The quartet of Boneshadow necromancers attending Losien also made themselves felt, one using a Soul Drain on Squizzles, aging him and sapping his physical stats. As we broke for the evening, almost everyone on both sides of the fight were still up, and a ball of negative energy was bounding towards the party…

As the group shook off the lethargy that had overtaken them while they experienced their individual visions, they briefly compared notes before making their way through the Obsidian Mirror and into the Leering Keep held by the Black Rooks. On the far side of the mirror they found themselves in a small courtyard, where they quickly spotted two individuals. The first was Nigel, who appeared to have become frozen as he came in for a landing, and Vincent, who had already set up a number of chalk-outline symbols on the flagstones.

After greeting the party, he asked once more if they wished his aid in bypassing the demons bound to the walls, which they did. He then stepped into one of the outlines he had set up, pressed a small stone to the walls of the keep, and the walls could be seen to ripple as dozens of demons were sucked into the stone (which a couple of folks recognized as being very similar to the stone being used to construct their own castle in Narwell). When called on this fact, Vincent announced that since there was nothing binding them to complete the recovery of the gems, that this was his “insurance policy” that the group would comply. Alexia tried to detect evil in him then, but he came back negative in that regard. Having nowhere to go but forward, the group left Vincent and the frozen Nigel in the courtyard, and began moving towards the tower they’d identified as Jaliseem’s location.

Almost immediately, they ran into guards investigating the flight of the demons. The guards were dispatched, but not without bloodying the party a bit. When their path to Jaliseem brought them near the vault where Vincent’s gems were located, they fought a second, slightly better prepared group of guards, that they quickly dispatched. Armed with the gems, they made their way to the top of Jaliseem’s tower.

As they approached the living area of the tower, they could both feel and hear an arcane duel taking place. Vincent and Jaliseem were locked in combat with one another, hurling raw energies at one another with little regard to the furnishings, which were smoldering or smashed all about the room. By Wilfred’s estimation, Vincent was not only winning, but he was pulling his punches.

Turning his head to regard the party (while simultaneously increasing the pressure of his assault on Jaliseem), Vincent asked if the group had his gems. At this declaration, Jaliseem went pale and her defenses began to falter as Vincent collected his gems. For his part, Vincent handed the stone with the bound demons to Elerra, and told her to crush the stone when they were ready to leave, and vanished. jaliseem, exhausted, fell to her knees and was easily captured by the party.

Questioning her, the party was disappointed to learn that she actually knew very little about the rituals to come, at least very little that they did not already know. She did identify Sindar Sirion as the one chosen to lead the ritual beneath the Azure Sea, and cattily gave away the location of Losien’s residence and holdings inside Iuz. Saddened that this was the most they could get, they trussed her up and Teleported back to Narwell to turn her over to the Baron for incarceration.

Returning to the site of their castle’s construction, Lseral (who was still there, despite having been cut loose when Elerra converted fully to Cleric) said that the group had a party of emissaries who were awaiting their return. The three huchard turned out to be an architect, a logistics specialist, and a clockwork engineer, all of whom wished to offer their services to the group.

As we parted for the evening, the group was debating making a run against Losien, or at least his keep, hoping to find more information on the ritual he’d been tapped to lead…

It is the 3rd of Ready’reat, 600 CY
119000 xp
Mythic Tier 4
30k gp each, after sale of sundry loot from castle.

When the last remaining Sons fell, Nigel, the animus ifrit sorcerer attempted to escape into the room beyond. After taking a moment or two to check the door and pick the lock, they swung open the door to the Chamber of Crypts. Facing the door directly was a black dragon, with a gargantuan elder balor and a shemhazian demon between them. The shemhazian promptly used a Dimension Door to get behind the party and unleashed his Blasphemy to paralyze most of the party, allowing the dragon to use his breath weapon to great effect, and Nigel used an Inner Blast to detonate the large hunk of ice that had once encased Mekkatorque to shower the party in shrapnel.

As the battle progressed, the shemhazian quickly fell, and the party focused most of their energies against the balor, who seemed to have an inordinate ability to soak damage, despite the lack of detectable or dispellable spells on his person. The dragon, bypassed and nearly forgotten by the party (though Wilfred’s sword, Bloodweaver, kept trying to redirect Wilfred’s attention back to it) eventually tried to devour Squizzles, but got himself killed shortly thereafter.

The balor’s attacks fell like hammers among the party, but eventually he was felled. Nigel escaped, having followed Elerra into the Ethereal Plane and used an Encase in Ice to stymy her pursuit. The group located Jaliseem’s sarcophagus, and after futilely beating on it’s exterior, used Knock to open it. Alexia beheaded the clone inside, and as we broke for the evening, the group was electing to rest to recover their strength, before passing through the Obsidian Mirror to the Leering Keep….

After outlining their individual expectations, the group returned to the Baron’s office to discuss the possibility of releasing Janos Tandovr in exchange for his help locating his sister’s clone. In his office with him was Alexia, who had obviously just finishing telling him of her adventures while she had been away. Her former companions quickly took note that Alexia seemed not merely more mature in some inestimable way, but physically older, as well.

Adira, stating that she intended to seek out Tenser‘s fate on her own, she made her farewells. In their discussions with the Baron, who was against releasing Tandovr, Alexia asked to be allowed to rejoin the group, as her god had recently granted her a “visit” to the future that would result from their failure, a time that was called the Age of Iron. She also revealed that as a result of that experience, she’d become a paladin of Murlynd. Stressing the press for time, they eventually brought the Baron around.

Janos’ first demand was for the oaths to be sworn before a priest of Pholtus, as he was certain that the party would be unwilling to swear before Hextor, and the clergy of Pholtus was widely known to be good and just (if, perhaps, a bit too just). While in Greyhawk securing the aide of a priest named Klanden Ferrer, Elerra took some time to visit Kiamyr at the shrine and to the surprise of many, she forswore her career as a sorcerer, and dedicated herself to Ellistrae, becoming a full priestess. On hearing that his serviced would no longer be needed, Baht-Ole elected to join up with Wilfred’s followers to help research ley lines and possible ritual sites.

Once rejoined in the dungeons under Narwell, the following oaths were sworn. The group agreed that Janos would be released 7 days after their departure (whether they returned from their mission or not). He would be freed with a horse and money equal to the value of his equipment (which the party had largely sold). His sentance would be considered to have been served, and he would be free once more to travel where he would (though remaining in the Domain of Greyhawk was probably not advised).

On his part, he revealed that his sister’s clone was kept in a special chamber located in the Wyrmcrawl Fissure, a feature in the western Riftcanyon. The approach to the chamber would require passing through the Fissure on foot, a region cloaked in twilight, and infested with thousands of undead known as the Sons of Kyuss. The chamber itself, he revealed, had four primary guardians. The first three, he revealed, would likely be found together, namely Nigel Foqar (once an ifrit sorcerer, now an undead animus), Greshak the Foe-Eater (a half-ogre bloodrager, now a swordwraith), and finally Norman Lareft (an elite Son of Kyuss). These three had been family retainers in life, and continued to serve in unlife. The fourth guardian he named as Sodokoor, one of the greater balrogs, whom had been bound by one of his father’s companions decades before.

For his part, he knew of no additional alarms on either the chamber or the clone that would alert his sister, but required that the group was allowed to harm ONLY his sister’s clone, and that they were forsworn not to loot the chambers of any other valuables. Furthermore, he indicated that there was a means of passage directly from the chamber to the keep, a polished obsidian mirror in a bronze frame that would take them directly there (short-cutting the Teleport Block that otherwise held sway in the region).

Squizzles filled the group in from his encyclopedic bardic knowledge concerning animuses, swordwraiths, Kyuss, and balrogs, and the group made it’s plans for the journey. The following morning they set out, arriving in the canyon and working their way into the Fissure proper, fighting through throngs of Sons who sought to bar their way. Hours later, their weapons dripping the gore of a thousand or more undead, they finally reached the door to the Tandovr Crypts (as the area was called).

Unlocking the door proved a minor challenge, as it was additionally held closed by a Bigby’s Forceful Hand. Wilfred and Mekkatorque were the first into the room and made their way to Nigel, who responded by trying to trap them both in a Forcecage. In the following round, he would seal Mekkatorque in an Ice Prison (briefly). He would then keep himself out of reach between the two obstacles he’d created as he peppered the group with spells.

Meroln would rush to meet Greshak in combat, but a pair of lucky crits buried in a hail of attacks would leave his broken body oozing on the floor. Elerra would resuscitate him, but it wouldn’t be until late in the combat when he would be able to return to the fray. As we ended the evening, the only Nigel and a pair of elite Sons remained to block the party’s progress toward Sodorkoor and Jaliseem’s clone.

Picking up the pieces afterwards (scraping up Squizzles in the process) the group spent several hours pouring through the spell-weaver’s archives, eventually finding a few pieces of data about the Arcanoth to add to their general pool of knowledge. After returning to Sharu’mosna to share the knowledge with Saldean, he offered the services of the local priesthood in returning Squizzles to life. The priest of Dionysus to whom they entrusted the mixed ashes of Squizzles and the rage demon assured them that he could separate them, though he himself looked uncertain.

Perhaps 20 minutes later he returned, seeming quite pleased with his efforts. Squizzles, himself, also seemed pleased, though his companions were more uncertain. Where they expected to see a kobold, this “new and improved” Squizzles seemed to have been incompletely separated from the demon’s remains, as he now sported a fine set of bat-like wings from his back, seemed generally very muscular in appearance, and his face and tail had developed a number of wicked looking spines.

After pledging to continue assisting one another, the group returned through the portal and then teleported to their castle. As described by their followers, there was indeed a 30’ diameter sphere of smoking metal hanging over their construction site. Elerra’s apprentice, Lseral, came out and explained that there was a mage that had taken up residence nearby who claimed that it was his efforts that kept the object above from completing it’s arc towards destruction.

The group found that the mage in question, who called himself Vincent, was awaiting them inside the structure. He offered to negate the demons protecting the Black Rook’s fortress overlooking the Riftcanyon, in exchange for a pair of items that the Black Rook’s kept there. The group asked for some time to discuss the matter, and sent Vincent back to his camp outside the walls.

Wilfred, Meroln, and Elerra then departed for Greyhawk, where Elerra went to check in with Kiamyr, Meroln sought out Jenny, and Wilfred sought out his own group to learn what developments they’d learned or made while he and the others were on the moon.

The Society had made several important advancements. First, they’d constructed a large, 8’ diameter illusionary globe depicting Liga’s surface, upon which a burgeoning network of ley lines could be seen taking shape. One nexus that they’d confirmed met the requirements for the Third Mark lay deep beneath the Azure Sea, in a region called Shasnarfal by the sahuagin who lived there. Another nexus, the largest one they’d located thus far was known as Tovag Baragu, located on the shores of Lake Udrukanar in the Plains of the Paynims.

The society had also constructed scale models of the two iron sky-ships that had rained destruction across the Flanaess and beyond. They also could display their courses on the globe, showing how one had specifically targeted mages and the second, larger ship had attacked cities and towns. In their “Dunno Files” they had a list of odd occurrences that seemed to trail the two vessels, including the substitution of clothing between two girls of differing social status in Nyrond, and the uprooting of an apple orchard in Furyondy.

Another “innovation” the society had come up with were a pair of golden hoops that could simulate a ley line between them, and a stubby silver board that would “float” in the energies of a ley line. One of the researchers demonstrated that the effect was strong enough to support the weight of someone riding on the board, though actual propulsion was still being worked on.

When the trio returned to their castle, the group met once again with Vincent to learn the specifics of what he was offering. Vincent explained that somewhere within the castle, there were a pair of fist-sized glowing gemstones set in platinum frames perhaps a foot in diameter. If the party agreed to bring him these items, he would unbind the demons that the Western Leering Keep had bound to it’s walls, setting the demons free to take their revenge against their binders, the priests of Mabelrode.

Before returning to his camp, Vincent, at the behest of the group, ensorcelled the projectile hanging over their heads, sending it back to the vessel from which it had been launched. Wanting a bit more information on the keep and it’s defenses, the group had Baht-Ole cast Communion with Boccob, and asked the following questions:

Has Jaliseem made a new clone?Yes

Is it present in the castle?No

Does she have any other demons than the ones in the walls?Yes

Can Vincent be trusted in this endeavor?Yes

Is this deal worth giving Vincent the gems?Uncertain

Are there any mortal forces other than the Black Rooks staying in the castle?Yes

Do they have information on our intentions?No

Is Tenser still alive?Uncertain

Does Tenser still have the Esoterica?Uncertain

Are the Granbretanians planning another attack in the next month?Yes

Afterwards, the group went to Narwell, where they met with Baron Aerogenesis and asked for access to Janos Tandovr. Once down in the dungeons, the group traded jibes with Janos for several minutes, before getting down to business. Janos offered to answer their questions in exchange for his release, if they (and the Baron) would be willing to agree to a set of terms enforced by Geas. As we ended for the evening, they were working out the details of what they would require of Janos, while he worked out the details he would ask in return….

As the battle progressed, Sam and Meroln acquired an impressive number of dangling ribbons protruding from their bodies, even as circumstances forced them to be healed repeatedly, sealing the barbed needles into their flesh for painful removal later. As the group pushed out of the first chamber, Elerra noticed a small, strange rift form in the passageway they’d exited, that proved to be immune to dispelling (though it served as a viewpoint through which the spell-weavers deeper in the complex could target them with spells).

One such spell proved to be a magical Ballista of Force that Elerra narrowly avoided being skewered with, as well as a Bouncing Delayed-Blast Disintegrate_ that claimed Squizzles’ life, and severely taxes the party’s dwindling healing reserves. Baht-Ole was targeted by a Lifefire Ray that continued to burn away at his body for round after round, preventing him from healing himself (though he could still heal others).

As the elementals and the cabaren fell, the group’s progress was eventually blocked by an Wall of ironwebs, beyond which could be seen an aeshma demon who carried a large runed greatsword. As it fought Sam and Mekkatorque, Elerra managed to Disintegrate it, resulting in it’s form’s dust being intermixed with that of Squizzles, who’d been standing where the demon stood when he died. In an effort to keep the rift from following them further, Wilfred used his magic chalk to erect of Wall of Force in the doorway between it and them, but it disbursed a Disintegration Sphere that began eating away at the Wall.

While several of the party waited for Elerra to Passwall the Ironwebs, Meroln was knocked unconscious by one of the spell-weavers attempting to use a Heart Clutch against him. Once the way into the final chamber was opened, the leader of the spell-weavers attempted to cast Adira, Wilfred and Mekkatorque into an Insanity Void but prudent spending of Hero Points and Mythic Points saw to it that everyone made their saves.

As hit points dwindled, the final trio of spell-weavers unleashed everything they had, multispelling Piercing Bolts with waves of Maximized Enhanced Magic Missiles, Balefires, and Fiery Bombardments, and even Mythic Fireballs & Mythic Magic Missiles from the leader of the spell-weavers. Eventually, however, despite Mekkatorque being nearly slain by sustained spell-craft twice in as many rounds, in the end the party was victorious and the spell-weavers lay dead at their feet.

Returning the following morning to discuss a joint mission to the Jenoine Node to recover the records Elerra’s vision indicated might be present there, Wilfred received a Sending from Kosha Mattuk, the head of his Society of Gnomergan. Kosha reported that earlier that morning, all the principal archmages of the Flanaess (Tenser, Mordenkainen, the other members of the Circle of Eight, even Rary) had all been systematically attacked by massive (300’ long) metal flying ships that had leveled their respective strongholds to rubble using “lightning bolts and beams of fire”. It was further reported that each of the vessels bore markings linking them to the Empire of Londra, known to be allies of the Arcanoth. It was also reported that a 30’ diameter metal sphere had taken up residence 200’ over the location of their nascent castle on Narwell’s southern border.

While saddened by the news of the attacks, and concerned that their stronghold might be under some form of attack, everyone agreed that storming the Node to recover the records was of paramount importance. Wilfred tried to contact Tenser directly, but received no response. Also of concern was the fate of the Esoterica… it had been left in Tenser’s keeping.

Their meeting with Saldean was delayed for a half hour, because it also turned out that their portal to Liga had come under an attack not unlike the one that befell the mages. Their skyship, the Redoubt, which had been flying over the tent-city they’d erected on the far side of the gate had been destroyed, and the merchants and guards there slaughtered or fled. As a result, Saldean regretted that he would have to cut the force he could send with them to the pole by 2/3rds, as he needed troops to reinforce the gate.

The party then spent the balance of the day coordinating with the Huchard and getting the lay of the lands they would be (re)visiting. The following morning they and their Huchard allies used the local equivalent to a Teleport Circle to arrive at the Waystation; a building on the outskirts of the Jenoine lands that had served as a point of contact. In the distance, the sounds of a pitched battle could be heard, gunfire and more chattering away in the pre-dawn light.

Opting to fly in, this strategy held until the group reached the end of the treeline, about 3 miles in. Under fire now from the pyramidal Node at the center of the conflict, the group was forced to make their way on foot, and soon encountered a force of clockwork soldiers bearing crests that their Huchard allies identified as belonging to the City-State of Erdaenos, one of the rebellious human territories that stood opposed to the continued presence of the Huchard now that the dragons had returned. Several of the party feared that they might have allied themselves with Londra, but no sign of the Union Jack could be found on the battlefield.

Blasting their way past the clockwork dragon, mage, and soldiers, the group and their shrinking Huchard defenders soon found their way into the Node itself, and in the process of fighting their way down into the bowels of the place finally lost the last of their giant allies. As we parted for the evening, the group had engaged the final defenses of the vault, defeating a lightning quasi-elemental but under fire from cabaren with more elementals pushing to engage them…

After a short bit of discussion, the group elected to take Keldeacon‘s corpse to the Temple of Boccob, knowing nothing of his beliefs or the practices of his people. The priests there attempted to raise him, but quickly discovered that his soul was bound somewhere in the Abyss, and unrecoverable. After indicating that they intended to bury the body, one of Keldeacon’s items, his legendary psychoactive skin, took off, having no desire to be entombed beneath the soil. Afterwards they sought an inn for a brief rest.

As dawn approached, they group (sans Meroln, who left to seek out Jenny) went to the space that Wilfred had rented from the Grey College for the Society of Gnomergan (the organization he’d recently founded to assist himself and the group). Uncertain of the Esoterica’s abilities, they first hedged it in with an inward-facing Circle of Protection from Evil (with a Dimensional Anchor for good measure), but when Baht-Ole tried to Consecrate the area, the tome went berserk, flailing it’s chain around the inside of the Circle, and grabbing Baht-Ole by the neck and physically hurling him across the room.

Elerra decided to enter the Circle (TWOENTER, ONLYONEMAYLEAVE! – sorry) and failed a Will save vs. the tome’s telepathic contact. “it burns” the Esoterica complained, “make it stop, daughter of Luzcidor…” Not having any clue what “Luzcidor” was supposed to mean, Squizzles chimed in that it was the name of the drow’s surface kingdom in the days before they were driven from the surface world. Once Elerra had used a Dispel Magic on the Consecrate, the Esoterica “introduced” itself as Sia Draja, Warden of the Book.

Wilfred, feeling that this was slightly out of their league, excused himself and used a Sending to contact Tenser for whatever help he might be able to lend. After several minutes, the Archmage arrived, with an athletically-built woman of Suel descent in tow, that he introduced as Adira. After being brought up to speed on the nature of the Esoterica and how they’d come into it’s possession, he walked the perimeter of the Circle for several minutes, casting the occasional spell at the tome. Eventually he stated that it was time everyone could see what they were dealing with, and after a brief incantation, the Esoterica sprang open and filled the area described by the Circle with black smoke that soon coalesced into the form of a young (8-10 years old) Suloise girl wearing a pretty red dress (though not one particularly appropriate to a girl of her age). Only Elerra and Squizzles caught that for just a moment, her childlike head and platinum-blonde locks were replaced by the black, flaming skull of a suel-lich.

Now that she was visible to everyone, she acknowledged each in her own way. Adira she referenced as “noble sister”, Wilfred was “child of the Astral”, Squizzles was merely “slave”, and Sam she called “bredthrall” (an ancient term delineating a life-form that had been created for a specific purpose). Tenser she acknowledged as “brother in the Arts, not so mortal as ye strive to appear”. After introductions, she once more gave her name as Sia Draja, Warden of the Book, and offered to assist the group with whatever their pleasure was.

While the group pauses to consider this offer, Tenser introduced Adira to the group, hinting that she may be of some use to them. As it turns out, she has some knowledge of Losien, who had been a member of her previous adventuring party (albeit he had left prior to her joining them). This results in a sharing of the names from the list they’d found at the site of the ritual they’d spoiled a few weeks past, from which Tenser further recognized Esmeralda as an arcanist known to have visited the city several times over the past two years, sometimes frequenting the Green Dragon Inn.

Sensing another link in the chain, Wilfred casts a Sending to recall Meroln from his tryst, only to send him off again to see if jenny remembers this Esmeralda character; she does, and identifies her as having been a friend of Grot’s, having met with him on several occasions to exchange information and occasionally small packages. based on her description, Sam realizes that she is likely the woman he attempted to tail from the bar back on the 25th of Goodmonth the previous year. Tenser eventually suggests that while all references to the titan behind the Wane may have successfully edited himself out of all the texts available here on Liga, a fresh source of very ancient records recently manifested itself in the skies above only a few days ago; maybe the group should investigate?

When asked about the next Mark, Sia is only too happy to spend the next several hours spewing arcanobabble that even Tenser has minor difficulty following, outlining the types of sites necessary, the “flavor” of the ley lines that must converge there, and detailing the astrological convergences that are necessary…. convergences that will come about in just over two months time. She further adds that with the failure of the Second Mark to achieve full power, the rituals for the third and final Mark will take longer, and must be completed over three days time, rather than merely one night (specifically, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of the coming Needfest).

When asked about the symbols Elerra had copied from the Arcanoth’s throne chamber, Sia recognizes only the symbol worn by the cloud giants she’d been serving previously, Clan Skath. Glancing over them, Tenser says that ships emblazoned with the eight pointed star of Chaos have been sighted plundering towns along the eastern coasts of the Great Kingdom, traced back to a new island that the inhabitants refer to as Pan Tang. Furthermore, he says that several new islands have appeared all over the world, one off the far western shore of the Solnor Ocean (which he identifies as Granbretan, the source of the Union Jack of Londra). In all, four new islands off the coasts of Oerik, and an additional four off the coasts of Kanos. He further adds that the Fairwind Isle, part of the Occupied Lands of the Sea Princes, was stripped of all it’s prior structures, populace, and vegetation, and replaced wholesale with new towns, strange people, and even stranger, semi-mobile red foliage. The odd creatures there claim to serve a being they call the Jack of Tears, the leader of the Carnival of Shadows.

Returning to their discussion about journeying to Celene, Tenser informs them that the site known to Adira’s former companions as ‘the Celestial Arch’ is no longer under the control of the Clergy of Celestian. Several days past, the metal doors that were bowed inwards by the assault of the Mabelrodians sprang open, and the giants on the far side of the portal pushed Progilius’ Egg back to Liga’s side of the portal. The giants then proceeded to chase off the clerics and set up a fair sized tent city with the obvious intent of re-opening trade with Liga. he provided Wilfred with enough information for him to Teleport the group there, which he proceeded to do after setting his people to tracking down the ley lines that would identify the sites where the Third Mark rituals would have to be performed.

Arriving the following morning, they caught their first sight of the giants, who called themselves Huchard and a glimpse of their capital city of Sharu’mosna through the 60’ stone arch that stood open at the center of the valley. Overhead, an unusual flying ship floated perhaps 150’ overhead.

Passing through the gate, the party found that Sharu’mosna took a little getting used to. The air, while rich with strange scents, lacked much of the “stink” most cities held. While most giants were 7’-9’ in height, some were much taller, reaching as much as 14’ in height, and generally seemed more experienced and/or skilled. They also took note of the sibbecai, a race of humanoids with the heads of greyhounds or perhaps weimaraners, who shared the city with the giants and were deferential to them.

Soon after they paused on a street corner to get their bearings, a young giant (5’ or so) named Timor came up to them and offered to be their guide. He found them an inn where they dropped off their belongings, and when asked where their histories were kept, he led them to the Imperial University. He then asked them when they wished him to return, and made arrangements to meet them then.

Once inside the University, they were led by one of the students there to the libraries, where it took several hours to locate what they felt was the name they sought: Dhaeros, known as the Arcanoth. Said to have been crafted by Boccob himself, he refused to take sides in the War of the Host, and was cursed to be one of the Forgotten when the war ended.

The following day the group returned to the University to do some research on the spell-weavers, whom the giants knew as the jenoine. Not much information was available, though the mural in the room where the records were kept was of some interest. It depicted the signing of a treaty between the giants and the dragons in ages past, and served to illustrate the races that dwelt upon the surface of Celene. The giants and the dragons had their representatives of course, as did the humans, faen (a halfling-like folk), verrik (very human, but with skin the color of red wine), harrids (vulture-like humanoids), sibbecai, litorans (a variety of catfolk), graf (elf-like, but with four arms) and a lone jenoine, standing apart from all the others. When the student who was helping them overheard that they had visited the spell-weaver node when the moon was in it’s “dead phase”, he summoned the Archivist, Saldean.

Saldean had many questions about the moon before it’s arrival in the “present”, as well as their exploration of the node. His attention was eventually diverted by Squizzles, when he asked where his “master” was, and launched into a discussion about the origin (from his POV) of kobolds, and the nature of the mojh and the dracha, two races that the dragons made from humans. The mojh tended to be the scholarly, arcane casters, whereas the dracha were winged and often took roles as warriors. It was in the midst of these discussions that we broke for the evening…

The group engaged the cloud giant, with Elerra creating a Passwall between the two halves of the library to facilitate movement. As the fight progressed, more giants and some ethereals joined the fray. Meroln was repeatedly battered throughout the fight, being knocked unconscious twice, and killed once, but brought back by Baht-Ole via a timely Breath of Life spell. Once the cloud giant magus fell, the two fire giant clerics accounted themselves well, nearly ending Squizzles and Sam at various times.

Keldeacon, whose poor luck with the Deck of Many Things had earned him the enmity of an powerful outsider got to meet said outsider, a deadly Gharros demon. Arriving on the third round of combat, it maneuvered him into the back of the southern library and kept him isolated while it’s poison slowly ate away at his CON. Even though Wilfred and Mekkatorque arrived and Wilfred Teleported Keldeacon to safety in the northern wing of the library, the demon soon located him again and resumed it’s assault. In the end, it defeated him, drew out his soul and returned to the Abyss with it.

Eventually, only one giant remained, a cloud giant wizard. He surrendered to the party, and agreed to lead them to the Esoterica Ebonwand. Plucking a huge scroll from one of the shelves, he unraveled it upon the floor, revealing a set of stairs leading downwards. Once in the cavern below, the party severed the chain that bound the book to it’s lectern, and then Teleported themselves away to Greyhawk.

As we ended for the evening, the group (and Keldeacon’s corpse) were standing on the steps of the Grey College as midnight was stuck by the bells…

One final item that they found was a deck of cards, a Deck of Many Things, a powerful artifact in and of itself. Sam, Squizzles, Keldeacon, Meroln and Elerra chose to draw from the deck. Sam was rewarded with wishes three, Keldeacon was forced to fight a dread wraith (which he nearly lost his life to) and the emnity of a powerful outsider. Squizzles lost wealth and property, while Meroln was rewarded with wealth. In the end, Elerra, at the last moment, decided not to draw from the deck, which then vanished.

Three days later, on returning to Greyhawk, the group concentrated on locating a copy of the Esoterica Ebonwand, but did not completely ignore the other clues they had gained. Squizzles informed them that the first name on their list, Sindar Sirion, was the apprentice to the Mage of the Valley, his homeland. He also identified him as one of the members of the infamous Ring of Five, a group of mages said to have set themselves in opposition to Mordenkainen’s Circle of Eight. He further identified Zagig Yagreen, former mayor of the city (and possibly the demi-god Zagyg), and the mages Tuerney, Leomund, and Serten as fellow members of this band. Their primary lair, he added, was somewhere in the depths of the ruins of Castle Greyhawk.

While most of the sages and other instructors of the could not identify the seal on the coded letter, one felt that it appeared similar to those in use in and around the Celestial Sea. It was further learned that complicated spell-craft guarded the message, an unusual weaving of both abjuration and reversed-divination magic.

So far as the list was concerned, aside from Sindar, the only other name that was readily recognized was that of Losien. The entire list was as follows: Sindar Sirion, Tierella Yendil, Esmerelda Nareda, Arthgan Katal, Losien, Yakato Kafar, and Dree of Ixworth.

After two days of searching old records, the Grey College could only provide the information that the Ebonwands were a magical society founded in the days of the old Suloise Empire. Of the inheritors of that empire, the barbarians of the north were unlikely to possess such knowledge. the Sunelan’s might, as might the the Scarlet Brotherhood. but nobody knew for certain, and it was unlikely that if they did, they would be willing to share any copies of the Esoterica they might have. Baht-Ole pointed out that the cloud giant wizard had obviously had access to a copy, so perhaps there was one wherever he had come from.

At the party’s request, he cast a Divination, and was awarded with a vision of a vast cloud castle somewhere over the Barrier Peaks, near the giant-occupied lands of Tsalf. It was decided the group would travel there by air and attempt to retrieve the tome.

It took nearly 2 weeks to travel there, and on the 14th of Patchwall, a full day before their arrival, they were witness to an amazing sight. Celene, the aquamarine moon, transformed itself over a period of minutes to a cloudy-living moon once more. At about this time, the effect making Teleportation magic unstable was also lifted.

Once they arrived in the vicinity of Castle Thunderhead, Wilfred and Mekkatorque scouted the castle. It sat on a piece of solidified cloud almost 4 square miles in size, with the castle itself stretching to fill nearly all the available space. Two large landing platforms could be seen, with a massive mist dragon lounging on the southern platform, and what Wilfred recognized as an Ethereal transport ring. As he watched, a number of slaves were led out and taken through the ring, to parts unknown.

Another Divination was cast, revealing that the tome they sought was (and was not) in the north-eastern tower. So the group, clumped together under an Invisibility Sphere landed on the tower and took out the two guards stationed there. One Passwall later, they were on the top floor of the tower, in a hallway that led to a pair of doors. one of which, when opened, revealed a particularly dangerous looking cloud giant wielding a greatsword that was perhaps a bit too large for his frame…

The party quickly moved into position at the crater, and their allies took on the cultists surrounding the area.

They quickly targeted the nalfeshnee demon that stood with the giants, but it was the cloud giant wizard, Zarathfal, who was first to summon additional allies, in the form of a trio of xeg-yi (negative energy elementals). Soon enough, the nalfeshnee did manage to gate in a trio of nerizo demons before falling to the blades of Meroln and Sam.

Though it took some time, eventually the remaining demons, elementals, and finally the two giants fell before the blades of the party, though it cost them nearly all their strength. With the giants defeated and their part of the larger ritual undone, the “Putrification” of the Second Mark was severely hampered.

Among the effects of the two giants, several documents were recovered, one naming a grimoire in which the ritual was spelled out in detail (Esoterica Ebonwand), a second appeared to be a coded letter bearing an unknown seal of some sort, and the third a list of seven names…

When the party finally finished off the Brotherhood‘s hobgoblin soldiers, the small Mabelrodian leapt to Kitiana’s side ululating a war cry. Meanwhile, overhead, meteors could be seen streaming across the sky, heralding who knows what. As the party poured incredible amounts of damage into their opponent, it was quickly plain to see that there was no sure way to harm it, indeed, when one of Meroln’s critical hits should have sickened it, it seemed instead to be bolstered by the effect.

Elerra offered a quick prayer (and a Hero Point) to Ellistrae for guidance, and learned that the best way to harm to miniature swordsman was to heal him – their opponent was a Nilbog! Once armed with this information, the party quickly turned the tide in their battle, collected Kitiana and her friend, the elven bard Elissa, and used Galen’s portal to his estate on the planet Earth.

The group found Galen’s estates quite impressive; acres upon acres of green lawn, copses of trees, and high hedges. As they emerged onto the back lawn of the estate, they finally met Galen “face to face”, as even though he still wore an elaborate suit of fine clothes (black with gold trim), he no longer wore his helm. He explained to the group that it would be a few days until the spheres were once again aligned to send them home, but until then he offered them his hospitality and his mansion.

Over the next three days Galen feasted the party well, and they were privileged to see the beginnings of his romance with Kitiana. He met with the group several times, discussing what he knew of the upcoming Second Mark, and advising them on a way that he felt they might be able to at least partially foil the Second Mark when it came to pass on the 4th of Brewfest. He explained that while there would be dozens of groups, across all three worlds, working to “unmake the weave of magic”, he also explained that their efforts would result in the crafting of a new weave, an “exclusive” weave, that only they and their followers would have access to.

He provided the party with a map to an island in the Celestial Sea, where he said that a coterie of cultists, led by a cloud giant wizard named Zarathfal, his assistant, a fire giant cleric of Zaaman Rul named Roshfadel, and a nalfeshnee demon known only as Qas, These, along with their followers, nearly 40 strong, would be leading a ritual to empower the Putrification. Disrupting their efforts would result in a distinct lessening of the effects, not merely on Liga, but on all three worlds of Chornalth. Spell-blights would still be a danger, and would pose a significant problem on the island itself, but if successful, it would be a vast improvement (5% chance on spell-casting instead of 25%).

On the night before they were due to depart, Galen confided to Meroln over cognac that these were to be the final five years of his life; all too soon he would finally meet his end, dying in an attempt to prevent Ka’antos and his fellow Mabelrodians from seizing Kitiana once more, as they made their move to use the capsule the party chose not to retrieve to travel backwards in time on the night of the Second Mark. He further explained that there would only be two more occasions when he would be able to remember the group, and after that he would always be an earlier self.

The following morning Galen led the group out to the center of the hedge maze that dominated his back yard, and once at it’s center hesent the group (and Elissa) back to the outskirts of Greyhawk City on Liga. Baht-Ole left the party to report to his superiors, reconnecting with the party the following morning to announce that his superiors at the Temple of Boccob would be providing them with a spelljammer and troops to help deal with the legion of cultists present at the site.

Wilfred’s contacts at the Grey College revealed that the island lay off the southern coast of the nation of Behow, in the province of Nahar, which was leased from the Vanarans by the nearby nation of Astariim. The isle is known to be desolate, thought to be haunted. Perhaps 10 miles long and five miles wide, the island of Khemshuu contains no plants or animals, no life of any kind. It’s only redeeming feature is a deep crater, said to have been created by a falling star some 5 millennia past, in which sits massive stone plinth.

The party spent the next two weeks shopping and leveling, and as we parted for the evening, the party had finally landed on the island, and were overlooking the bowl of the crater, a small army at their backs, all the better to counter the army that lay before them…

While Sam met with Tenser, Elerra went to the Grey College to petition them for an apprentice. Her desires were answered in the form of a male tibbet named Lseral Flamefur. After briefly getting acquainted, she and Lseral Teleported to Narwell, where she introduced him to the Baron, and told him to journey to the site of the castle they were constructing and oversee the operation. She then returned to Greyhawk alone.

The following day the party set out for Port Toli, a city in the Occupied Hold of the Sea Princes. None of them ever having visited the area, they were forced to fly overland through various means. Thanks to fortuitous tail-winds, they arrived at Port Toli only a day after Kitiana did.

It was quickly obvious to most of the party that the local populace was well and truly cowed, and that some of the “beggars” who lined the street were actually plants set there to spy on the populace. Squads of hobgoblins armed with naginatas made frequent patrols of the streets, and any human with blonde hair was shown deference, lest they be members of the Brotherhood. They quickly identified the intersection of streets where the ambush was supposed to happen, but it took some doing to find am inn that would agree to host such a large number of non-humans.

The next day, after some discussion, Sam and Keldeacon set out to attend the funeral. On their way to the funeral, they spotted a small humanoid (best guess was maybe a gnome) that obviously worshiped Mabelrode ambling in their direction. As it passed, it seemed to look in their direction and shrug. Once at the funeral, which was taking place outside, the two quickly spotted Kitiana from Galen’s description, as well as a female elven bard who obviously accompanied her.

While they stood on the outskirts of the procession, Sam soon noticed a woman who looked familiar, and approached her. As it turned out, it was Sister Anneh, the Abbess of Osprem, a woman he’d not seen in three or more years. He did not show her his true face, and she did not seem to recognize him, but the story she told of how she’d come to Port Toli did not hang together well, as she alternately claimed to have been there for 10 years (since the invasion) or 4 years, when she claimed Seabreeze fell into the sea. He eventually left her to follow the mourners out of the graveyard.

On the morning of the 14th, the party scouted out what they hoped was the best position to foil the ambush that Galen had said would happen around noon. On queue, as Kitiana and her companion made their way towards the docks, a patrol of hobgoblins could be seen quick-marching towards the square, where an Invisible mage of some sort floated over the heads of the populace. As the hobgoblins drew into striking distance, Elerra threw Glitterdust at the mage, then stepped back from the edge of the roof.

The mage, who proved to be a warlock, proceeded to pummel Wilfred with his Eldritch Blast twice, criting with the second one, which caused Wilfred to sit tight and wait for healing. Elerra’s position proved to be less safe than she’d hoped, as she had almost walked right into the Brotherhood ninja who’d been lurking there.

Meroln flew down to the street to defend Kitiana, who was under assault by a combination of hobgoblins, monks, and a warpriest who had come out of buildings along the street. When he could finally enter the fray, Wilfred and Mekkatorque made short work of the warlock, but their old position on the roof was quickly filled by a monk who attacked Baht-Ole.

As we ended the evening, most of the heavy hitters on the Brotherhood’s side were down, and Kitiana and her friend were still surrounded by hobgoblins despite repeated AoE spells from Elerra and Keldeacon. Meanwhile, down one of the side streets, the small Mabelrodian watched the fight, puffing on a pipe…

With the lich unreachable, the party spent several round polishing off the remaining skeletons and constructs, often by hurling them against the Prismatic Sphere to watch what happened. When the spellweaver finally reappeared (having spent it’s time refreshing itself and using a hidden stairway to come out behind the group) most of the group expended their prepared actions blasting it with everything they had, but it still managed to get off a pair of simultaneous Maximized Mythic Fireballs (one of which was also Enhanced) that slew Alexia outright, knocked Meroln unconscious, and left everyone generally singed (except for Sam, yay Evasion). Before he could do this again, the party managed to bring him down.

The group then dislodged the piece they had come for from the apparatus that dominated the room, and Squizzles used his Create Treasure Map on the spellweaver’s corpse to locate it’s phylactery and other treasures. Once the phylactery was destroyed, and the node thoroughly looted, the group made their way outside, signaled the Fury II for pickup, and made their way back to Liga and Greyhawk City unopposed.

Before meeting with Galen, the group took Alexia to the Temple of Murlynd to have her restored to life. Once she recovered her strength, she announced that for reasons of conscience, she could no longer be a part of the group. Elerra accompanied her back to Narwell to work out the now complicated provisions for the castle the party was having built, but was assured that Alexia’s pulling out on the arrangements would have no effect on the construction. The two then returned to Greyhawk for their meeting with Galen.

As always, Galen paid them what they were due, and gave no indication that Alexia’s departure was any surprise to him. He then laid out what he hoped would be their next mission, namely the “recovery” of the Clockwork “egg” that had crashed and disgorged Progilius Oransiir, the fabled self-aware clockwork man rumored to have died in a spectacular fashion in Blackmoor the previous winter. However, the fact that the Priests of Celestian were unlikely to allow them to “borrow” the capsule even after cleaning out the infestation of golems and elementals rumored to have taken over the catacombs beneath their temple, and despite Galen’s assurances that possessing the capsule was instrumental to blunting the effects of the coming Second Mark, most of the group was adverse to the theft of this artifact. Finally admitting that he had a second team that could handle this chore, he outlined his final task for the group.

He explained that on the 14th of Harvester, a close friend of his, one Kitiana of Beregond, a Cleric of Mystra, would come into danger of capture by the Scarlet Brotherhood. He went on to explain that she would soon be bearing the remains of another companion of hers to his family in the town of Port Toli, in the Lordship of the Isles, He went on to explain that she would arrive in Toli on the 10th of Harvester, and that she would come under scrutiny at his funeral on the 12th. By the 14th, a squad of Brotherhood monks and assassins would be dispatched to kidnap her, and that could not be allowed to happen.

He explained that the Brotherhood, or a rogue element within the Brotherhood, was working with those who were striving to bring about the Wane, and that Kitiana’s capture would only aid them in their plans. Instead, he wished for the party to intervene and whisk her through a planar gate that he would provide that would deliver her safely to the alternate Prime Material Plane where he himself had been born, to his very estates, in fact. Once there, he would return the party to Liga.

As we broke for the evening, the party began going their separate ways, selling loot, and either crafting gear or contracting to have gear made for themselves. Sam departed for the town of Magepoint, seeking to speak to Tenser about having a spell cast upon himself, so that he might correct what he now considered poor choices in the past. The night before, however, he had another dream…

The descent down to the surface of Celene took most of the following day, and on the morning of the 11th the party disembarked the Vlon’s Fury II and began exploring the upper, outer works of the pyramidal spellweaver node.

Sam did a bit of exploring inside the stacks that led inside the node, but didn’t see much of interest. Those waiting outside noticed that waves of arcane energy could be seen/felt washing over the area like a gentle breeze, but the energy was too diffuse and erratic to be of much concern. Eventually Sam re-emerged from the stacks, and the group made their way down to the main entrance.

After a short period of time, the group encountered the first guardians of the node, a pair of clockwork golems (Cabaren) that guarded a shaft that led deeper into the facility. As Sam was the first to close with them, Sam was shot repeatedly by the strange projectile weapons that they bore. These “ribbon guns” fired a trio of barbed knitting-needle like projectiles that trailed bright red ribbon into the wound. Sam quaffed a healing potion, which while it alleviated most of the damage, it made it twice as difficult to remove the needles after the fight was over. In the end, Mekkatorque clobbered one and sent it falling down the shaft (Squizzles tried grabbing the gun from the falling Cabaren, only to discover that it was fixed into place, and narrowly avoided dropping with it). Alexia had gained control of the other, and following her command for it to attack the other, it stepped off into the dark shaft to pursue it’s quarry.

When the group reached the bottom of the shaft, they found only the remains of the one they’d destroyed, the other having gone off down the corridor in the direction they wanted to go. About halfway to their ultimate destination, the group encountered a Prismatic Sphere blocking the corridor, but they used Dimension Door to avoid it.

At the end of the corridor, they finally located the chamber that held the device they’d been sent to retrieve, but it was guarded by a mix of more Cabaren, dire wights, and a number of black skeletons wielding kukris. The lack of air presented some problems, as most of Squizzle’s buffs required sound to be effective, and Elerra’s most effective spells required minds (or air) to be effective, as well. Eventually, on the far side of the room, a wizened mythic-level spellweaver lich showed itself, and it quickly became the target of everyone.

As we ended for the evening, the lich had just stepped back inside it’s Prismatic Sphere, right after it had encased Wilfred and Mekkatorque inside a massive block of ice…

On the morning of the 4th, Elerra paid Squizzles the honor of informing him that no longer would she refer to him as a battle-mage, from now on she would call him a Deathsinger. Squizzles accepted the honor with …. reservations.

The group spent the next 2 days shopping for potions, scrolls, and ioun stones, against the possibilities of ability drain, the moon’s lack of atmosphere, and energy drain. At noon on the 6th, the party boarded the hammership Vlon’s Fury and began the journey to Celene.

As the ship reached Celene late on the 9th, the group could easily pick out the dead sea bottoms, ruined cities, and petrified forests with their spyglasses. The crew of the Fury also spotted another spelljammer, a huge neoghi deathspider. Spyglasses soon proved that the deathspider to be crewed by drow, and flying a flag that featured Lolth pierced by three spears.

The first wave of boarders used Dimension Door to reach the deck of the Fury, and the packed condition of the melee prevented the use of Fireballs and the like. On the deathspider’s second pass, it rammed the Fury, throwing Sam and Meroln from the deck. A lucky shot from one of the drow riflemen nearly killed Elerra, but eventually the party and the crew of the Fury prevailed, though the Fury herself proved to be too damaged to continue.

As the crew transferred their Helm to the drow’s vessel, an argument broke out between Elerra, Squizzles and Alexia over using a piece of skin from one of the drow as a material component for the Create Treasure Map spell, in the hopes of discovering the port from which the deathspider had hailed from on the moon. Alexia was adamantly against this (as she had been in the past when the target was a humanoid), and matters were made worse when Sam tried to use his tongue-sting to paralyze her.

While the arguers finally went their separate ways, the bad blood remained. As we parted for the evening, the newly christened Vlon’s Fury II was beginning it’s decent to the ruined spellweaver node at Celene’s north pole…

Once home, Allister promptly fell asleep, and remained so for three days.

Meanwhile, Elerra returned to Greyhawk, to speak with Kiamyr at the shrine to Ellistrae, where she discovered to her horror that not only was the shrine unmanned, but it had been so for over a month. There was no sign of the priestess, and the shrine had been robbed of all its valuables. Kneeling before the shrine, she prayed to her goddess for a clue, and was rewarded by a vision of some very familiar snow elves kicking in the door to the shrine and felling the priestess in a hail of arrows. Furious that she might have prevented her priestesses’ death, Elerra made what minor repairs she could to the shrine and then returned to Narwell to commiserate with her companions.

When Allister finally awoke, the general consensus was that Allister wasn’t quite the man he used to be. While his memory of the past seemed intact, he had very little memory of his time in the ruins of the nation of Geoff. Overjoyed to have him back under any circumstances, the Baron and his wife arranged for a grand celebration two night later, to which they invited many of the notable lords and ladies of the city, as well as the leaders of the various guilds and Alexia and her companions. Also attending the celebration was Lord Peralay of the Knights of Luna, from Celene.

It was obvious to anyone that Lord Peralay was somewhat distressed to be seated at a table with a drow, but those who studied his face closely could tell that this was mostly an act. He seemed to be using his distaste for Elerra’s presence to furtively study Meroln. Trying to distract Peralay, Elerra kept peppering him with questions, even going so far as to try flirting with him, which seemed to actively draw genuine distaste from the elven knight.

Later in the evening, Squizzles and Alexia pooled their knowledge to reveal that Lord Peralay, in addition to his honorable service among the Knights, was a close associate of Prince Melf Brightflame, cousin to Queen Yolande of Celene, and the two were noted for their battles together against both Iuz and the Scarlet Brotherhood. At the end of the party, he made polite farewells to his hosts and departed without a word to either Elerra or Meroln.

Following the celebration, Elerra and her companions returned to Greyhawk City to try and discover the fate of the slain priestess, and soon found that her body had been found in the street near her shrine, and had been given a pauper’s burial in the cemetery outside the city. After greasing some palms, she received permission to exhume the body, which she took back to Narwell and asked Lady Aerogenesis to Resurrect her, which she did. After Kiamyr recovered, she assured Elerra that revenge was not Ellistrae’s way, and that since she had been given another chance at life, that her plan was to return to Greyhawk and resume her duties. Elerra made a substantial donation to the costs of replacing the stolen finery, and then took Kiamyr back to the shrine.

Meanwhile Wilfred was hitting up his contacts at the Grey College, all of whom had conflicting theories they were only too happy to share concerning the Calcification; they were also abuzz with the news that two of their number, Maldin and Zajeth, were scheduled to duel one another the following morning over which of their interpretations were correct. After several hours of learning much about nothing, someone finally directed him to visit Professor Emeritus Lareth Holfen, aka “Crazy Larry”, one of the school’s founders who kept an office in one of the lowest levels of the library (or was kept there, depending on whom you asked).

While Lareth bounced from subject to subject for the better part of two hours, amid all the chatter he did recognize two of the sketches that Wilfred had brought along, and even seemed canny enough to identify that the drawings had been done by a dark elf. Both sketches he identified shared similar characteristics, in that he claimed that both “did not exist yet” and that he also claimed to have encountered both in his younger days, when he had explored a number of alternate prime material planes.

The first he claimed was the symbol for Imperial Londra, an island city state of deep depravity, which boasted skies of choking vapors and a strange assembly-line style of crafting magical items. Mekkatorque, who had been ignoring the chatter up to this moment with the universal distaste of all felines, also recognized the symbol, calling it a “Union Jack”, the national flag of a place called Great Britain, whose capital was a city called London, not “Londra”.

The second symbol (which Mekkatorque promptly dubbed a “Ferris Wheel”) Lareth declared the symbol of strange group known as “the Carnival Krewe”, a group of traveling performers renowned not merely for their lavish showmanship but for the trail of mysterious deaths, aberrant births, and general misfortune they left in their wake. Said to be based on a mysterious island washed by the blood of a dead god, on the world he encountered them they were an insidious force that local authorities were hard pressed to stamp out.

Before Wilfred left, Lareth confided that if he ever came across a supply of some rare mushrooms known to grow in underground caverns on Celene, he’d greatly appreciate them….

Reuniting with the others, Wilfred shared his experience, and then the group discussed it. Someone brought up returning to the Temple of Boccob, as being the deity most affected by the Wane of Magic, they might have new information. On the way there, Squizzles remembered that they had made an appointment with the High Priest before they’d fled the city back in Flocktime, so they were all quite surprised that the High Priest they sought had been killed the night before their appointment. The new High Priest, Olaf, stated that he was unsure what information his predecessor had thought to share with them, but asked what they knew.

Elerra showed him the Puzzle Box, and explained how she had used it to visit the audience chamber of some colossal being that had apparently assembled a coalition to bring about the Wane. As the High Priest was quite intrigued by this, Elerra opened the box for him, but when he placed his hand within, he and the box promptly exploded, showering the party in gore to their shock and disgust. The acolytes who ran to discover the source of the explosion found them all standing dumbfounded, and quickly realized that a horrible accident had occurred.

The High Priest’s chief understudy, a young priest named Kendar, helped the group get cleaned up and reheard their story, trying to discover for himself what had happened. he related that the original head of the temple, Lantraal, had been murdered near dawn on the 28th of Flocktime, by an assassin who had broken into the temple. As Lantraal had wished to be cremated, there existed no body with which they could employ Speak with Dead. But once the acolytes had finished scraping Olaf off the walls, it turned out that in death he provided some answers that he’d been less forthcoming with in life.

The information led Kendar to an ancient scroll (the tome which Lantraal has used also having done missing) that told of the Dawn Times, and how a few of the first children of the gods, the Titans, had set up their own kingdoms upon the surface of Chornalth, how they had made lesser creatures of their own (the giants), and how they had warred against the gods themselves. Those titans who had sided with the gods went on to become the first angels and devas, and those who stood against the gods and lost were consigned to the Hells, becoming the first arch-devils. But the few who refused to choose sides became the Forgotten, cursed by the gods to dwell forever apart. More importantly, the list of their names showed evidence h=of having been altered, one name in particular being missing from every source they could check.

Over the next two weeks, a council was assembled. Several other Temples sent historians, as did the followers of Delleb, Wee Jas, and even Mystra. Khelben sent one of his senior apprentices, as did Greykin, Mordenkainen, Tenser, Bigby and Theodain. Many theories were bandied about, and the assembled knowledge base did identify two more of the organizations that Elerra had discovered the symbols for, namely the “Lords of Emerald Thought” (a group of evil mages said to lurk in the shadows of Krynn’s Centrial City), and the “Council of Wyrms” (a group of mages said to have broken off of the Cult of the Dragon on Beregond).

An ancient tome from Beregond proved to be useful as well, as it spoke of a time in the future when the Weave of Magic would curdle and fail, one of the final steps toward this being known as ‘the Putrification’, a time when even the most casual spell-casting would impose spell plagues and worse on arcane casters on all the worlds. This would soon be followed by the collapse of arcane magic in general.

One of the dignitaries at the conclave then put forth the suggestion that in the distant past, a race presently known as spell-weavers (their own name for themselves being the Sykarans) had ruled a vast inter-dimensional empire that had fallen to ruin over 50,000 years previously. While little is known of their empire or it’s history, it was known that one of their cities (or nodes) had been on Celene, and that prior to it’s destruction, divine magic had been suppressed over the whole of it’s surface for several decades. It was then suggested that perhaps what was being put into motion to corrupt and destabilize arcane magic might be based in whole or in part upon whatever experiments the Sykarans were doing prior to it all blowing up on them and their empire collapsing into ruins scattered across the multiverse.

On the 2nd of Goodmonth, as the Conclave was beginning to fall into petty disagreements and generally unraveling, a young urchin appeared on the steps, and asked to speak to Alexia, whom he informed that Galen was back in town and had work for the party, if they were interested in it. Alexia then rounded up the party and met with Galen later that evening at the Green Dragon Inn.

After exchanging pleasantries, Galen informed them that he actually had three tasks for them. The first of which would involve a journey to Celene, into the very heart of the spell-weaver node located at the moon’s north pole, to recover a piece of the engine which had suppressed divine magic. he offered the group 15,000 gold each for the successful completion of the mission, and would provide them with a spelljammer crew willing to transport them there as well. He warned them that the moon was populated mainly by undead, and that even after 500 centuries, undead spell-weavers or their construct servants (known as Cabaren) might still guard the facility.

As we broke for the evening, Galen informed the party that the crew would be at their disposal for the next week and a half, so they had a few days to equip themselves for the journey…

As the party defeated the first wave of guards, Wilfred and Mekkatorque returned from whatever dimension they’d been Summoned off to and rejoined the fight. Shortly thereafter, the illithid returned, using it’s Mind Blast on the cluster of people fighting near Wilfred and ultimately stunning Mekkatorque. Elerra responded by hitting the illithid with a mythic-fueled Confusion like she had Skagmolax, but Sam moved to attack the illithid, which then concentrated it’s attacks on him, alternating Mind Blasts and psionics.

Meanwhile, Meroln valiantly hacked at the Wall of Force guarding the entrance to Allister’s cell while more guards and a beholder arrived, just as the last of the original guards were falling. Those guards who practiced the Soulbolt disciple kept to the lowest level of the prison, while those who were more traditional Soulknives were forced to race for the elevator (which, ultimately, cost them their lives, as between Elerra blasting them with spells and Wilfred’s Summoning a huge air elemental, they were dead before the elevator made it to the third level).

The beholder was eventually slain by a combination of Elerra blasting it with an Acid-elemental mythic Fireball, and Meroln taking a moment or two off from smashing his sword against the Wall of Force to finish it off before it could manage to succeed with any of it’s deadlier eye rays. Upstairs, Sam divided his attacks between the illithid and a duergar who has obviously rushed to the alarm, as he was unarmored. between Sam and Giselle, he soon fell, revealing that he wore a complicated jeweled bracer. Eventually, though, Sam, weakened by one of the illithid’s psionic attacks, eventually fell victim to the Mind Blast.

Seeing that Sam was about to become calamari for real, Wilfred summoned an earth elemental to bull rush the illithid off the balcony, but it’s Levitation kept it from plunging to it’s doom. It then used that Levitation on Sam and began drawing him towards itself. Wilfred then summoned the aforementioned air elemental to try and keep them apart, but it failed to do so (so he sent it spinning around the room to assault the guards). Giselle raced around the balcony to bring the bracer to Squizzles, who had been bolstering Meroln’s assault on the Wall of Force.

In short order, the illithid was slain, the bracer used to unlock Allister’s cell, and the heavy thudding footfalls of proper giants could be heard in the distance. Sam and his previously dropped sword were recovered, Allister, likewise, was thrown over a shoulder, and as a trio of furious fire giants arrived in the cell block, Elerra put a Wall of Force in their way and the party beat a hasty retreat back the way they’d come, using Vhaeraun’s key to return to Narwell…

After maxing out their preparatory spells, they sent Squizzles and Sam through the door to begin scouting, but both quickly reported back that as soon as they crossed the threshold, a Bane effect sprang into being. Alexia countered it with a Bless, and Elerra detected that a Dimensional Anchor was in place as well as she crossed into Deepholm.

The corridor they were in led perhaps 70’ before turning, and beyond the bend the corridor became a trench that ran 10’ beneath the surface of a larger chamber. Sam climbed the walls to peak over the edge, and quickly spotted a huge red dragon dozing near the neatest and best-kept treasure horde he’d ever seen; Squizzles later identified the dragon as likely being named Skagmolax, a former Githyanki war-mount rumored to have taken up residence somewhere in the region after his rider was slain in a raid against the illithid city of Larguno perhaps a century earlier. The other side proved to house the horde of a less fastidious but equally impressive red dragon, Yazcara, Skagmolax’s mate.

Screening themselves from the lair via the use of Silence, the party quickly plotted their plots, and then launched their attack. Squizzles threw a second Silence at the far side of the cavern, where the trench became a corridor once more, to screen the noise of the combat from the rest of the city. Elerra hit Skagmolax with a mythic level Confusion while the bulk of her allies moved to melee Yazcara.

Yazcara, sensing how close to death she was, and surrounded by foes, used a Ring of Transference to trade places with Skagmolax, conveniently putting her in a prime position to blast the foes who had once surrounded her with her breath weapon. This, of course, caused the party to begin to realize that some of the spells they sensed in effect (the Bane, Dimensional Anchor, perhaps others) affected only themselves, not the denizens of the prison complex. Yazcara’s time was short, however, and soon she lay dead.

Turning their attention to Skagmolax, he was quickly finished off as well, with Squizzles dealing the death blow. Afterwards he claimed the penultimate scale for his tribe’s quest, while the rest of the party dumped the contents of the dragon’s individual hordes into their assorted extra-dimensional spaces. Sam, for his part, cut away the best parts of the dragons for use in his alchemy, and the party eventually got underway once more.

A few hundred foot further down the corridor, the scouts spotted a pair of duergar guarding what looked like a massive brass cage that blocked the end of the hallway. Meroln quickly charged them, but one of them managed to sound the alarm anyway. The party quickly demolished the two, and after a brief examination, figured out that the cage was in fact an elevator, and divined it’s operation.

The cage elevator itself gave access to the area where Alexia’s brother Allister was imprisoned, and using Elerra’s vision as a guide, they used it to reach the fourth level and then left the cage to engage the guards they encountered there. Shortly after engaging a pair of guards on the cell block opposite the one where Allister was imprisoned, Wilfred and Mekkatorque vanished, Summoned away by some caster in an alternate reality.

The group attacking on the other side of the cell block quickly located Allister’s cell, a decently appointed apartment-sized room that was warded by an effect much like a Wall of Force. Standing inside the cell was a haggard and underfed Allister, and standing close behind him was the very thing people had accused Sam of being for most of his life, an illithid. As the battle progressed outside of the cell, the illithid could be seen to look distractedly at the ceiling, it’s head briefly crowned by a halo of pulsating green light, after which it vanished, apparently Teleporting away, again in defiance of the Dimensional Anchor permeating the region.

As we ended for the evening, the alarm was still in effect, and Allister was still locked in his cell as the party battled the duergar guards…

Deciding to brave it out, Elerra, Sam and Squizzles waited for Krog to appear, and demanded to see his superior. Sgt. Pador seemed at best vaguely impressed by Elerra’s pedigree, saying that they already had lots of Everhate and Tormtor, and that he supposed they could find a place for a Vae. After having additional guards remove the orc they’d poisoned, and replaced him with a fresh guard, Pador led the trio deeper into the barracks complex guarding the gate to the Underdark and into the upper works, where it was obvious that some “reconstruction” had gone on to make it friendlier to giants.

Passing through an outer office staffed by three human females whose spirits were obviously broken, Pador led them to his superior, a stone giant named Hadramak, whose rank was given as lieutenant. Hadramak seemed surprised that a drow had appeared at the gate, and also was subtly surprised that she seemed unaware both that the relationship between the drow and the giants had changed, and that she lacked information on how well their efforts to hold the lands they’d stolen fared. He asked if the drow had had another war and if they were looking to sell more of the losers into slavery, but seemed not to care much either way.

As the uncomfortable exchange ground to a halt, the trio finally made their farewells are were escorted back to the gate, which was locked behind them. Rejoining their companions, they sought another exit from the Underdark, eventually finding another tunnel that led to a ruined gnomish settlement where they camped for the “night”. Sam and Squizzles scouted further ahead, finding signs that a skulk also dwelled in the area, but never quite encountering it, although it did trigger the Alarm that Wilfred had set to alert the party in their camp.

The next day they climbed/flew/levitated up the 60’ chimney that led to the surface, noting the nearby (1-1.5 miles away) watchtower that had a view of the exit as well. making their way well away from the area, they bedded down for the day, reasoning that it would be better to travel at night,

That evening, as both moons reached their zenith overhead, Elerra, Wilfred and Squizzles all felt the First Mark as it imposed itself on the magical energies of Liga. Alexia’s staff became agitated as well, as this affected it’s special purpose. After some debate, the group decided that they would keep to the lowlands as they approached Tycha to try and connect with Allister Aerogenesis’ contacts in the Underground.

After almost a week of travel, the group arrived on the outskirts of Tycha, the last town Allister and his companions had visited before the fateful ambush at Lake Mala. Even at 4 AM, the town bustled with orcish activity, though the guarded “ghetto” where the humans dwelled was silent. Fearing to approach the city even invisibly, the group camped out in a stand of trees on the edge of the fields that surrounded the town. When Alexia renewed her spells for the day, she used a Contact Planar Ally spell and received a strange “ally”.

An orc with pale gray skin (instead of green) and hands that were dyed pitch black, wearing a serape, a wide brimmed hat (similar to the ones they’d seen many orcs wearing in the town) and a pair of pistols arrived with a burro. Squizzles recognized him as being one of the nalshavel, a rare, good-aligned orcish offshoot that followed their own subset of orcish deities known as the Zavik (the Enlightened); by the color of his hands, this one likely followed Torva, the leader of that pantheon. Given his task, his skin changed color to green as he rode off into town and returned several hours later.

“The Orc With No Name” told how he had sought out Tolmar Naz, the only other Underground contact the group knew of in town, who had confirmed that there were perhaps 500-odd orcs in the town, whose main duties were supervising the 800 or so remaining humans. A pair of stone giants dwelled in the large stone manor-house, with perhaps a dozen ogres and a trio of trolls also present. An elderly make drow was also known to dwell with the giants, in charge of anything “magical” the giants might need. He had also arranged a face-to-face meeting with the party and Tolmar, as they lacked travel-papers and could not expect to approach the town without them.

Later that night, the group met with Tolmar, learning that the traitor, Tangmar, had been promoted by the giants and had gone Pest’s Crossing to further serve the overlords in some capacity. As Tangmar had been the head of Tolmar’s cell in the resistance, he was currently cut off from the movement, but felt that his presence in town still served the greater good, as he was in a position to funnel extra rations into the ghetto to help feed the humans there. When asked about Allister, he had no specifics, but did state that when the nearby dwarven fortress of Deepholm had fallen, it had been re-purposed as special prison; it was possible he had been taken there.

As dawn approached that night, Elerra danced to the glory of Ellistrae, and prayed mightily for guidance. Her hopes were two-fold: Does Allister languish in the prisons of Deepholm? And is there an easier way to enter said prison that fighting their way past a legion of giants and their minions? Spending a Hero Point, her faith was rewarded. The first part of her vision served as a rough tour of the revamped dwarven city of Deepholm, now overrun by orcs and fire giants. Deep beneath the city, she saw a level of the dungeons where the “special prisoners” were kept; politely appointed apartments screened by Walls of Force, and she witnessed Allister seated in his cell. A nearby cell proved to hold a mind flayer, though it was obvious that the illithid had the freedom to wander the halls, which were guarded mainly by duergar.

The second part of her vision surged deep into the Underdark, to the very streets of Erelhei-Cinlu, namely a hovel somewhere in the Ghetto of Outcasts. There an ancient male drow could be seen with an odd golden key on a chain about his neck.

Knowing that visiting her home city was dangerous beyond measure, she elected to bring only Wilfred, who utilized his Hat of Disguise to appear as a drow himself. She Teleported the two of them to a location nearby that she was familiar with, and made her way to the hovel she’d witnessed in her vision, and knocked on the door for access.

The old man eventually let them in, and Elerra fed him a sob story about needing his key to help free the brother of a companion; even going so far as to reveal herself as a priestess of Ellistrae. To her benefit, the old man (whom both she and Wilfred noticed was growing visibly younger as the visit progressed) raised no alarms, though he did seem deeply amused that a noble drow female would debase herself to aid a male. Eventually he did relent, and offer her the loan of his key, if she would dance for him.

As she danced, she was quick to notice that not only did the squalid furniture in the (now reasonably young) man’s hovel move out of her way of it’s own accord, but a beam of what looked like moonlight shone upon her as she danced. Eventually she came to realize that she was dancing before Vhaeraun (drow god of thieves) himself. After making a hasty retreat with the key, she and Wilfred returned to their haunt overlooking Tycha, and, lacking any doors upon which to test the key, they all returned to Narwell via Teleport.

After testing the key and learning that it would size itself to any lock, and further learning that if used with forethought, could cause the unlocked door to lead to a specific destination, Elerra used it to open a door into a hewn stone tunnel, from which a wave of heat poured into their apartments. As we broke for the evening, the group was preparing to make their way through the door, to lead a rescue for Alexia’s brother…

After unloading their gear and getting settled, the group began interrogating Janos Tandovr. Based on his information, they learned that it was extremely likely that Jaliseem was once again among the living (courtesy of a Clone spell she had cast) and that she was likely ensconced at the Northern Leering Keep.

The Keep, it seemed, was well defended against both air and ground assault, and the walls themselves were said to have eyes that could detect invisible intruders. The one “secret exit” to the keep was just as well guarded, and known to Jaliseem, the High Priest, and the Company’s second, Laris. While Janos retired to his cell to sketch maps of the place, the party broke into groups; Alexia and Elerra fell to crafting, while Wilfred and Meroln returned to Greyhawk, Wilfred to the Grey College, and Meroln to the arms of Jenny. Sam kept mostly to himself, especially after having had his third dream.

About a day after Janos fell out from under Elerra’s Dominate spell, Alexis heard a disturbance in the main foyer, and found one of her brother Allister’s adventuring companions, one Larresta of Hardby. She’d come to inform the family that Allister and the rest of her companions had been ambushed at Lake Mala in Geoff. When she had last seen Allister, he’d told her and Zafferyn, their cleric, to run, but she had seen no trace of the cleric since fleeing the Lake.

Over the course of the next several days, she retold the story several times, slowly adding details as more of the party arrived with new viewpoints and new questions. Though nobody ever specifically asked, it quickly became obvious the Alexia and her companions were going to Geoff to search for Allister, as her parents, while they could not locate Allister directly, they could detect that he still lived. Larresta gave them a full accounting of the names and locations of their contacts in Geoff, including that of Tangmar DeMag, the contact in Tycha who had likely betrayed them.

As Elerra was going through her things, preparing for travel, she noticed that the puzzle box she’s recovered was emitting a low hum and vibrating softly. After spending maybe an hour opening it again, she placed her hand inside and was once more transported to the dark audience hall. Everything was much as it had been except for the addition of a strange artifact that sat on each of the tables in view. The artifact in question was a platinum disk about 4" in diameter, with a 3" red cabochon gem (the whole object resembling nothing so much as an “Easy Button”).

Not wanting to touch the item, she gathered her companions together to make a group effort of it, but when they did not follow her into the chamber (on the “outside”, they merely saw her place he hand on the puzzle box and become comatose), she put her hand over the new object on the table. Her vision then shifted to a brilliantly glowing version of the throne, The figure there spoke, saying “The time is at hand, my disciples. When both moons shine full in the sky, the first Mark will become active, and the whole world will feel the breath of the Wane on their necks. Our time is a t hand!”

On returning to the “outside world”, Elerra recounted the experience to the others, who quickly pointed out that the only night both moons would be full this year was in three days. All of this made Alexia’s staff quite agitated, as it’s special purpose was to oppose the Wane of Magic. However, as the group knew next to nothing about what was planned, they decided to proceed to Geoff.

The following morning, Elerra Teleported the party to a tunnel she knew of, somewhere beneath the Barrier Peaks – a passageway from the Underdark to the Sundered City, a lost Grey Elven city from the times of the Spidered Throne. In her youth, she had visited the Sundered City several times, as party of her family’s manipulation of the first giant invasions in 577 CY. Working their way up the corridor, Sam and Squizzles soon spotted a lone, bored orc guarding a door. After a discourse, Elerra, Sam, and Squizzles approached the door openly. The orc seemed unimpressed by any of them, only showing a surprised mistrust when Sam spoke.

Eventually Elerra shot him with one of her sleep-poison bolts, but not before he’d alerted “Krog” on the far side of the door…

As the battle continued, Meroln raced to engage Jaliseem as well. As her health steadily fell, she bit off one of her own fingers (along with the magic ring that rested there) to restore a large portion of her health. This stratagem was of little avail, as the steady onslaught from Meroln and Wilfred soon left her unconscious. Despite this, her Contingency spell activated, causing only momentary confusion.

Meanwhile, additional forces began to enter the battlefield, springing the final elements of the trap that had been laid. Four warlocks bearing Dimensional Anchor warding rods rode to the far corners, denying the group an easy exit, as the Company’s head Warpriest of Hextor made a beeline for Coleman’s corpse. As the priest moved to put Coleman’s body on his horse, Meroln raced to stop him, and Alexia (spending a Hero Point) blasted Coleman’s body with a Flamestrike, completely vaporizing it and sending his ashes spiraling towards the heavens.

Several knights also entered the field, some coming to the aid of the Warpriest, others keeping near Jaliseem’s body. When Janos finally arrived on the scene, Sam, Squizzles, and Giselle all moved to counter him, but his first attack nearly killed Sam outright. As Alexia moved to Heal Meroln (courtesy of a scroll), Squizzles did much the same for Sam. Several archers, breaking from stealth, began firing on Elerra, Meroln, and Alexia, using arrows that carried Anti-Magic.

As the battle began to turn once more in the party’s favor, Janos moved to recover Jaliseem’s body, seeking escape (more horns could be heard in the distance), but was driven back. Elerra spent her final Hero Point to punch through Janos’ magic resistance and Dominate him, commanding him to order his forces to surrender. Before he could manage that, one of the knights in his retinue managed to get Jaliseem over the saddle of his horse and raced back towards the sound of the horns.

Janos ordered his forces to surrender, and most complied, though Janos needed to be ordered to stop (as he was wandering towards one of the Anti-Magic fields still littering the battlefield). Wilfred and Elerra gave chase to the knight, catching him a mere 100’ from the onrushing forces coming to the battle. Between the two of them, they blew the knight off his horse, and his retreat allowed them to recover Jaliseem’s body.

Upon their return to the others, they quickly stripped the soldiers and knights of their gear, and used a Teleport to return to Aerogenesis Manor in Narwell.

Alexia’s parents and the household guards showed up seconds after the final foe had surrendered, but the Baron and his wife were more concerned that everyone was okay than they were with the destruction wrought on the room. As the guards dragged the bodies of the fallen away, Alexia recounted the events of the fight, as well as the events that likely led up to it, as well, while Elerra went through the items recovered and discovered to her dismay that the great-swords wielded by their opponents all had minor demons bound into them.

Alexia and her mother took the swords to the Temple of Murlynd to cleanse the corruption from them, while Elerra and the others questioned their prisoner (Elerra’s father having departed to go and “strengthen the wards” guarding the domicile). After agreeing that the soldier would be turned over to the Clergy of Murlynd afterwards, he revealed that when he last saw them, Janos, Jaliseem and Coleman had all been present at the camp outside the town of Docamald, and that the swords he and his companions bore had been provided by Janos’ friend, the elf, whose name was revealed as Losien.

When Elerra sought to check on her crystal ball, she found it freezing cold to the touch and filled with the same roiling, oily black smoke that had been employed by the Black Rooks to guard their command tent from scrying. She and Wilfred sought out the Baron, who managed to clear the smoke and return the crystal to it’s normal temperature, though the crystal remained slightly discolored (and, as they were soon to learn, had lost it’s ability to scry on areas).

When asked if he knew anything specific about Jaliseem, Baron Aerogenesis could reveal little, except that he knew that she had served as Rary’s apprentice until 580 CY, after which she joined her brother Janos in the running of his mercenary company, serving as the head of the arcane services.

As the night progressed, the party decided that the Rary connection might be enough to convince Tenser to aid them. Plans were made to Teleport out to Tenser’s Castle the following morning. On their arrival, they were told that the Archmage was currently occupied, but that he would make time for them later in the day. The guards handed Elerra a strange disk made from an unknown, translucent material, and was told that when the disk began to flash and vibrate, that the Archmage would be prepared to see them.

The party spent the next hour or so cooling their heels in the Sultry Apprentice’s Tavern in Magepoint, until at last the disk they’d been given began to flash a ring of red lights and hum violently. Returning the disk to the guards, one of Tenser’s apprentices led them inside the castle and led them to Tenser, who greeted them warmly.

Dismayed at their tale of attack in the home of Alexia’s parents, Tenser agreed to try and locate Jaliseem, and succeeded, finding her and Coleman riding through low hills, possibly alone (he was keeping the viewpoint narrow so as not to alert them of it’s presence). He further agreed to Teleport the party to the location he’d seen, but cautioned them he’d have no way to recover them. The party then cast a few preparatory spells and arrived on the same road as Coleman, Jaliseem, and a small coterie of foot soldiers.

Elerra promptly blasted the tight-knit riders with a Fireball, but this only served to illustrate that all but one of the soldiers and the mounts of Coleman and Jaliseem were illusions; the mounts died and the soldier stood charred but quite alive. As the battle played out, Coleman and Jaliseem were eventually located despite their Greater Invisibility spells, and Coleman, who had blasted Alexia, Giselle and Meroln with a maximized Lightning Bolt was soon unconscious and dying at the feet of Meroln. The foot soldiers came running out to join the fray, and Jaliseem nearly turned Meroln to her side with a Phantasmal Turncoats spell, but Alexia managed to Dispel it before Meroln had a chance to act.

Wilfred and Mekkatorque eventually moved to melee Jaliseem, and she nearly did to Mekkatorque what she’d tried doing to Meroln, but she could not penetrate his Spell Resistance. Unable to flee due to a Dimensional Anchor spell Wilfred had targeted her with, Coleman down and her foot soldiers dropping one by one, things were beginning to look grim for Jaliseem, but are those horns in the distance…?

The following morning, Alexia made inquiries concerning any former members of the Black Rook Company that might have settled in the region, and one of her retainers gave her the name and directions for Kaden Hral, a mercenary who had retired from the company perhaps 10 years previously. Seeing no reason to waste time, she and Meroln set out to speak with him after breakfast.

The ride out to his orchards took perhaps an hour, and it was clear from the environs that the former mercenary was doing quite well for himself. When the two arrived at his large home, they were greeted by his 10 year old daughter Lizet, who, after informing the pair that her daddy was down by the distillery, proceeded to ask Alexia endless questions about her clockwork steed. Upon learning that the contraption had never been named, Lizet promptly dubbed it “Sparkles”.

At the distillery, the pair soon found Kaden, a tall man whose fighting trim was beginning to vanish behind the paunch of his belly. The two spent several hours drawing him out about his former company, learning that he had served under Elias Tandovr in the Greyhawk Wars, seeing action mostly in Furyondy and the Shield Lands. While he had never served directly under Janos, he said that he had heard that he had his father’s knowledge of tactics and also praised Jaliseem for her growing skill at crafting battlefield illusions.

While he had no real knowledge of the commanders and the faiths they might follow, the only war-god he had never seen a priest of among the company was Heironeous, which he added, “was more the god of knights than of mercenaries”. While talking with the two, he also mentioned that another alumni of the company, Mikhail Draz, was now a mason in a village perhaps 10 miles further north, and that come Patchwall he expected to sell another 20+ barrels of cider to Dalen Mynar, a dwarf who served the company as a quartermaster.

Furthermore, he stated that the previous year’s shipment had been sent to Axeport in the Shield Lands, and that it was likely bound for Docamald. He said it was likely that that would be their base for the summer’s conflicts. When asked if they could arrange a meeting with Dalen, Kaden said that he didn’t expect him until after Brewfest, but that he would send word when he was again in the area.

Returning to the city, Alexia and Meroln encountered a lone clockwork mechanical approaching them. As it drew near, the clockwork contracted itself, sliding back into itself until it revealed the young gnomish female that had been inside. The young woman introduced herself as Giselle Ratchetgear, a “robomancer” who wished to pledge herself in service to Alexia. As they continued their journey home, the two of them worked out the details of their arrangement, and Giselle was introduced to the greater group upon their return.

Afterwards, based on the information Alexia and Meroln had gained, Elerra used her crystal ball to scry on Axeport, and followed the roads to Docamald, where she found the Black Rook’s encampment. She encountered resistance penetrating the command tent, as a layer of thick, black, oily smoke clung to the fabric. Inside the main tent, she found a large map of the Shield Lands, with the towns of Nairen, Weslan, and Shepkote marked as being occupied by the forces of Iuz. Also on the main table was a large bell jar containing a blinded quasit, and a strange black stone sculpture with a smooth concave depression sat at the rear of the tent. Also present were Jaliseem and Colman; she could tell that Jaliseem was a fellow mythic.

Examining other tents, she found that one of the large tents near the command tent contained a shrine to Hextor, where a priestess of Sotillion was kept magically bound, and obviously subdued, presumably for her services as a healer. None of the tents looked as though they might be Jaliseem’s, however. After conferring with her fellows, she returned to her labors, estimating that perhaps as many as two thousand troops were encamped there, and based on their spirits, fresh from a recent battle that they’d won. Also, from the urgency of their activities, they were anticipating battle again, and soon.

The town of Docamald, itself, seemed to have turned itself over to the service of the company, and the inns and pleasure houses along it’s red light district were quite busy. Turning her attention back to the camp itself, she witnessed Janos and an unknown companion, an elf, both obviously mythic, ride back into the encampment, but there was something odd about their approach – no one challenged him, or his companion. Her companions, who were also watching through the crystal ball, pointed this out almost immediately.

While the group began to doubt the “veracity” of what they were seeing, remembering that Jaliseem was a mistress of misdirection on the battlefield. As Elerra brought her scrying point nearer to the command tent, she spotted a mote of light slowly moving through the camp. As it grew nearer, she recognized it as one of the disembodied eyes of the quasit she’d seen earlier. It spotted her, and as it rushed at the focus of her crystal ball, she broke the connection and quickly stuffed the ball into her haversack.

The group began discussing plans, perhaps merely to rescue the priestess they’d seen earlier, or perhaps to wipe out the leadership of the Company on one fell swoop. However, while they debated their plans, others put theirs into action. From the bedroom attached to the sitting room they were planning in, Wilfred clearly heard the sound of a dimensional portal opening, and soon a number of soldiers wearing the colors of the Black Rook company swarmed into the room with them.

Swords and spells flew, and Squizzles was knocked unconscious, but as we broke for the evening, one survivor of the invading force knelt before the party, asking they accept his surrender…

Meroln and Sam quickly moved to dispatch the spiders in the alley, and Elerra blasted the drow hiding in the kitchen with an acid-elemental Mythic Fireball, which finished off all but one of the spiders, killed the goblin sorcerer, and severely weakened the drow. Meroln quickly dispatched the remaining drow as Elerra moved through the wagon in the alley trying to spot the snow elves on the rooftops. As the excitement died down inside the inn, Wilfred used a Teleport to send himself, Mekkatorque, Sam and Meroln to one of the nearby rooftops where he’d previously seen the snow elves in Elerra’s crystal ball. The snow elves were already gone.

As the battle in and around the inn wound down, the city watch began to arrive. Meroln and Alexia took turns trying to explain the situation, which seemed to only grow worse, as the guards quickly recognized Tomoso as Lord Venne (who, as it turned out, was the brother-in-law of the Mayor’s sister, as well as a very highly placed member of the local thieves’ guild). Lord Venne disavowed his sole remaining retainer, and, as Meroln whispered to him that he owed him his life, he made his exit.

When the local watch captain, Arturo Tand, recognized Alexia as a noblewoman, the tenor of the questions changed and the interview began to go much smoother. Eventually the owner of Galasso’s Gate appeared, and after surveying the damage, told the group as well as his other guests that the inn would be closing for repairs. The party then briefly sought refuge in the common room of the Pig & Otyugh before deciding that Teleporting to Narwell was probably a better choice.

The following morning they Teleported to Narwell, and were received by Baron & Lady Aerogenesis at their manor in the city. Plans for their castle were drawn up, and plans for a road from Narwell to that location were also planned. The group also reviewed with the Baron what he knew of the Black Rook Company, as well as their leadership.

The Baron said that he had known Elias Tandovr as a young man, and had often employed his mercenaries for a variety of conflicts. Unlike many mercenary companies, he said that the Black Rook preferred active campaigning to garrison detail, and cited the Northern Leering Keep at the Riftcanyon as their current organizational HQ. The Baron also stated that of late, Janos Tandovr had been known to associate with the leader of the “false priests” of Mabelrode, who currently made Riftcrag as their base of operations.

When asked specifically about Jaliseem, the Baron’s face could be seen to wrinkle in distaste. He revealed that in addition to being Janos’ twin, that she specialized in battlefield illusions, sculpting terrain and hiding troop movements. A keen and devious mind, he called her, one accustomed to controlling everyone and everything around her.

Later that evening, Elerra attempted to scry the keep, but was overcome by the sensation that something powerful and evil was staring back at her, ready to reach through her crystal ball and snuff her out. Hearing her tale, Squizzles guessed that there was a chance that an elder demonic form, an obyrith perhaps, was bound to the very walls of the structure guarding it against scrying in it’s own special way.

When we parted, the group had spent several days in the Aerogenesis manor, going over designs for their border fortress and planning their next moves…

Shortly after the building they were searching caught fire, the party teleported back to the ruins of Castle Greyhawk, to make their way nonchalantly back to Greyhawk as if nothing had happened. The group congregated in Elerra’s room at Galasso’s Gate to discuss developments and to plan their next move.

Tomoso continued to be immune to scrying, though Elerra did manage a brief view of the mage they’d encountered at the ruins before he entered Tomoso’s presence and was also clouded from view. As the hour had grown quite late, the group decided to keep watches and discuss the matter further in the morning.

At around 2 AM, Squizzles detected a group of individuals in the hallway outside their rooms, ambling about obviously searching for something and trying to be quiet about it. Peering through his keyhole, he saw a number of what he recognized as snow elves in “outdoorsy” gear checking the doors and generally lurking in the hallway. He promptly cast Message, and once he managed to awaken Elerra, informed her of their presence (both of them being quite aware that snow elves had a particular hatred for drow). Elerra donned her Mask and was quickly spotted by the last two elves as they made their way back downstairs. They apologized for the commotion, explaining that they were merely checking on a friend who had too much to drink. She then went back inside her room, brought out her crystal ball, and proceeded to watch them as they exited the inn, broke into three groups, and took up sniper positions with clear views of the inn’s exits. She informed her companions of this development, then they returned to sleep and their watches.

Elerra tried scrying on the other rooms in the inn, but within a few minutes was interrupted by a knock, and the night manager informed her that the inn was requesting that she honor the privacy of her fellow guests. She told him about the snow elves setting up sniper posts outside, and he responded that he would see to it that notices were posted at the front entrance to that effect…

The following morning they all met downstairs (early) for breakfast, though the kitchen wasn’t quite open yet. A number of carts were outside, making deliveries, and Squizzles noticed that the one delivering bread and pastries had a very familiar feline sitting alongside the driver, which he pointed out to Meroln. Eventually Meroln went outside to see the cat for himself, it being pretty odd that the cat in question would be in Greyhawk. Meanwhile, Sam went out the back door to check on one of the produce carts that had a suspicious lack of activity around it.

When Sam finally reached the street from the alley, close to Meroln, they were both hit with a Glitterdust spell from the previously-Invisible mage who had been standing on top of the “suspicious” cart. As Sam scaled the wall of the alley to reach the mage, he also discovered that the sides of the cart were illusionary, as two of the warriors hidden within attacked him. They began flowing out of both sides of the cart as Meroln moved to try and startle the horses, hoping to set the cart in motion.

The bulk of the party remained inside the inn, interpreting the noise outside as a possibly comical attempt by Sam and Meroln to catch the cat. Elerra eventually drew out her crystal ball to view the scene, only to recognize Tomoso and the mage who’d escaped their ambush at the ruins fighting Sam and Meroln. As the rest of the party flowed out of the inn to join the fray, Elerra remained inside, sending her freshly crafted Golden Raptors (variant of the Golden Lion Figurine of Wonderous Power) out to join the fight. When Wilfred recognized the mage from the previous encounter, he quickly hit him with a Dimensional Anchor spell (which he gained access to via a Hero Point) to keep him from fleeing again.

Sam was quickly losing his fight, as the mage had blasted him with a Boneshatter spell early on that left him weakened and fatigued. He’d also managed to bring a wand into play through his Dancing Wand spell that outright slew the horses tied to the cart (as well as Elerra’s raptors) and generally weakened everyone in close proximity when it unleashed a Cold-based Fireball at ground zero. As Alexia moved in to heal Sam, she was blasted with an Enervation for her trouble. But with most of the party now present, the odds began to favor them once more. Tomoso had finally surrendered, and Meroln took a moment to bind him.

While this was happening, Elerra, still fearing the snipers outside, eventually grew bold enough to move through the kitchen to try and reach the alley to (hopefully) provide her companions with more firepower. But instead of the kitchen staff, she encountered a pile of dead bodies (the aforementioned kitchen staff, the inn’s guards, and some tradesmen), and a pair of drow, their goblin servant, and a pair of large wolf spiders. One of the drow, an Inquisitor of Lolth that she recognized from her homeland, tried to use his Greater Brand on her, while the Priestess of Lolth moved to block the door. The goblin tried to hit Elerra with a Dimensional Anchor, but he missed, and she quickly used Teleport to flee out to the street while the spiders tried to web her.

Once she reached the street, she cast a Mirror Image on herself and began screaming about the drow in the kitchen, the first time any of her companions had ever really seen her afraid of anything. The snipers on the rooftops (remember them?) promptly began thinning her images. Squizzles threw a Grease spell in front of the door in the alley. One of the drow kicked open the door to the alley, and the area was quickly blanketed in Deeper Darkness, which cloaked everyone except Elerra in darkness (to the delight and joy of the snipers, who kept firing and shaving away her defensive images). One of Tomoso’s thugs, who’d been considering surrendering until the shouts about more drow had confused the issue for him, took this opportunity to hide under the cart and wait for the world to make sense again.

As we broke for the evening, Wilfred had smeared Oil of Daylight over Mekkatorque, revealing the pair of wolf spiders that had entered the alley, and once again illuminating Elerra to the snipers (she’d just stepped into the Deeper Darkness to hide from them).

As the party sorted through the dragon’s horde, Elerra chanced to be the first to touch the large puzzle box (which shrank to a cube about 10" per side when she did so). She then stowed it away for further analysis later. The coins, gems, and other magic held within the dragon’s lair was then stowed into the group’s various Handy Haversack’s and Bags of Holding before the group teleported out of the lair and back to the town of Longwood, where they made a substantial donation to the Temple of Pelor there before teleporting back to Greyhawk.

Once back in the city, the group decided that their presence at the Green Dragon Inn was too well known, so they took up residence at Galasso’s Gate instead (though Meroln could often be found in that vicinity as he continued to pursue a relationship with Jenny, one of the barmaids there). While Alexia set out on her mechanical horse to Narwell to ask her parents about ceding the group some land upon which to build a fortress, the rest of the group set themselves to various tasks; Elerra crafted a number of magic items, Wilfred could often be found socializing with his fellows at the Grey College, and Sam spent much time practicing his facial camouflage, learning (again) how to manipulate his features in a way that would allow him to pass unnoticed among humans.

Squizzles, still intent on his quest to collect a scale from each type of chromatic dragon, learned of two white dragons with lairs that were known. One, called Illinax, laired in the glaciers of the Land of Black Ice, and was reputed to be a spellcaster of some repute. The other, known as Telmaker, was more bestial, and said to lair in the Corusk Mts, somewhere south of Dokkhulder and west of the Sable Forest in the lands of the Cruski, or Ice Barbarians.

Meroln was the first of the party to spot wanted posters for Sam going up around town, but these, unlike the one carried by the last group of bounty hunters, offered only 6000 gold for his capture, and listed a man named Tomoso with an office in the Clerksberg section of town as the interested party.

Meanwhile, Elerra, in between crafting items for herself, had finally managed to unlock the puzzle box, revealing a hemisphere with an incised spot for an outspread hand. When she placed her hand in the box, she found herself transported to a vast darkened chamber. The first object she noticed was a giant throne comprised of what appeared to be pure magic about 500’ or so away, and as her perspective caught up with her, she realized that the throne was sized for a being of colossal size, a greater giant or perhaps a titan.

She also noticed that the area where she was standing held a long table (about 20’) with a number of chairs, and that it was just one of several, the section she was in being on the outermost edge. Three “inner rows” of sections lay between her location and the open area before the throne. While she could move freely enough in her own section, trying to leave that area was like trying to walk through molasses. Several of the areas held banners or pennants, her own section holding a banner patterned after the design on the puzzle box that she associated with the Path.

She made her way down to the throne after several minutes of exertion, but it offered no clues as to it’s owner. On her way back to the area she’d appeared in, she made several sketches of the other banners, but when she finally willed herself back to her room they did not accompany her, so she remade them from memory afterwards. Later, when she showed them to her companions, Squizzles recognized one as belonging to a secretive group of arcanists and wizards known as the Disciples of the Bronze Grimoire.

Not having much information about this group, the party elected to solicit the aid of Lantraal, the local High Priest of Boccob. After penetrating the various layers of intermediaries surrounding the High Priest, he proved slightly more knowledgeable than Squizzles, though he proved to know even more about the Path.

The Path, he said, was a disparate group of individuals, mainly spell-casters, who had (or wanted to achieve) mythic stature. Founded perhaps a century past, members were chosen on the basis of their achievements and their character (preferably dark or outright evil), sworn to secrecy and made members of a dark brotherhood that sought power over everything else.

The Bronze Grimoire, on the other hand, were a far older group, perhaps 400 or more years old, having had it’s largest membership during the days of the Great Kingdom’s fall into darkness and depravity. It was rumored that the arch-mage Serten had been a member, and that one or more members of Iuz’s cadre of wizards might also be current members.

While he could not identify any of the other symbols, he did feel that the throne was somehow familiar to him. Before dismissing the group, however, he asked Alexia if he could examine her staff. Though somewhat reticent, she allowed it, and everyone was quick to pick up on the High Priest’s change of mood after he had done so. He bade the group to return in two days.

With time to kill, the group then decided to try and do something about Tomoso and his wanted posters. Elerra used her mask to pay Tomoso’s office a visit (said office being cloaked from scrying by some effect). The encounter was brief, and having learned what was expected of a bounty hunter having “acquired” the target, she returned to her fellows.

The group then scouted out a location for their “turning over” of Sam. Castle Greyhawk’s ruins were selected as the best choice, as the avenues of conventional approach were few and easily watched. Sam was not thrilled by the thought of being even partially ensnared for the encounter, but gave in to his companions’ assurances. The following night, as they had arranged, a carriage was seen crossing Zagyg’s bridge, but as the passengers disembarked before the ruins, Tomoso was not among them. Instead, another individual, obviously a mage was in attendance.

After a brief verbal skirmish, in which Sam attempted to outbid the factors, the group launched an attack. The mage teleported away, abandoning his soldiers, who, after surrendering, had little information to supply to their captors. As we broke for the evening, the group had teleported to Tomoso’s office, where, as they searched, several explosions could be heard from the floor below…

Alexia and Meroln soon rejoined their companions, and after a brief delay to relate the information they had gained, set out mainly on foot for Lake Menosh. Three days later they arrived at the location that Elerra had previously scryed, and sent Sam under the lake’s surface to scout the entrance to the lair.

Sam soon encountered a region of antimagic, which extended from the entrance of the lair,which also was decorated by a spiral of skulls leading down the shaft. Leaving this field, he sought for a second entrance, and after about a quarter mile of swimming further out and deeper into the lake, did find a smaller likely entrance, also protected by antimagic. Sam eventually swam back to shore and reported his findings.

The party decided that Sam should explore the “back door” first, while they attempted to scry him and learn the extent of the antimagic field. After about 50’ of tunnel, Sam felt the return of magic in a section of the tunnel about 20’ long, before it resumed. He also saw a flash of movement in the darkness as something about the size of a small cat swam rapidly away. He returned to the party again to confer, but on his return to the tunnel spotted one of the ogrish half-dragons now patrolling the tunnel he was in. He managed to hide from it.

Meanwhile, back on the beach, Elerra was scrying the junction where the antimagic let off, and she saw another half-dragon, this one inspecting the walls and testing the antimagic with a glowing crystal (that extinguished itself when in the antimagic). She and Wilfred then heard it address an eel that was wrapped around her wrist, saying to it that the “trap junction” was clear, before the eel unwrapped itself and swam (presumably) back towards the lair.

Sam avoided the guard for several passes, but eventually decided to try and take it out. With the antimagic dampening his abilities, this proved to be an unwise choice, as the ogrish half-dragon’s strength and skills were totally undiminished, and it rapidly brought Sam near death. Sam did prove to be the faster swimmer, however, which was probably a wiser choice, as the eel wrapped around this guard’s wrist had fled back into the lair (probably to draw reinforcements) in the first seconds of Sam’s ambush. As Sam fled the tunnel, he turned back to see the guard pursue him only to the mouth of it before returning inside.

When Sam returned to the group, he told an edited version of these events, leaving out the bit where he tried to ambush the guard. As the rest of the party had only been able to see the second eel flash through the “trap junction” in the crystal ball, Sam’s version of events was accepted.

This left the group with some problems. The antimagic fields protecting the tunnels served as an effective barrier against the largely air-breathing party, which could not rely on potions or magic items to allow them to swim such long distances underwater. Teleporting to the “trap junction” was rejected as a viable choice because they were uncertain exactly what that meant, but it certainly didn’t sound good. Elerra began attempting to randomly scry locations under the lake, a long, drawn out process that wasted most of the day. At one point, however, she did locate a 30’ cubical chamber unconnected to anything else containing 4 skeletons, all of which had magic items and full sets of gear. It was suggested by some that perhaps this was where the “trap junction” might shunt people attempting to teleport into the lair.

Towards evening, she managed to locate a small cavern, but the scrying focus was quickly extinguished by an ogrish crone who swung some kind of cane or rod at the focus. Feeling even more frustrated, Elerra eventually decided to spend one of her Hero Points to receive a vision from her goddess, hoping that there was some connection between the lair and the Underdark.

In her vision, she witnessed a group of robed individuals who had come to the dragon offering their services. She saw them laying the foundations for the spells guarding the lair, though one of these worthies noticed several small cracks in the floor by one wall and only smiled and did nothing about them. When they had completed their work, she witnessed the dragon ceding them a portion of it’s horde for their work, and accepting a black and silver puzzle-box from them. Elerra further recognized the designs on the puzzle-box as matching a design worn on the dress of Matron Alda of House Lalander in Fansteris. The vision then returned to the crack in the floor, which revealed itself to lead to a twisting set of tunnels that a small creature could worm through that eventually let out into the Underdark, and then a path through the Underdark that came out on the side of a nearby mountain.

The following morning, the group set out for that mountain, and followed the path Elerra described, eventually reaching the tunnels beneath the lair. The party used Reduce Person on themselves as needed to fit through the crevice, then used a stone with Silence cast upon it to allow them to cast prep spells before bursting into the lair itself.

Once inside the lair, they quickly spotted Skapamoor and several of his spawn going about their business. Sam, Squizzles, Wilfred and Meroln rushed the dragon, wounding it grievously, as Elerra used Wall of Fire to divide the half-dragons from their sire. The battle took an odd turn, however, when the dragon used an item around it’s neck which both healed it for much of the damage it had just taken, and surrounded itself with antimagic, which caused those surrounding him to quickly drop from the air as their magic was suppressed. The dragon began then to fiercely melee his opponents, and was quickly recognized as being a fellow mythic being.

Meanwhile, the other members of Skapamoor’s household began to arrive. His mate, also guarded by antimagic, was quickly felled by Elerra’s sleep poison, and another of his sons proved to also be so guarded. As Meroln, Sam and Squizzles occupied the dragon, Elerra and Wilfred chewed up his brood. Seeing that Meroln was clearly about to fall to the dragon’s attacks, but knowing that she could not heal him while he was enveloped in the antimagic, Alexia called upon Murlynd for the dragon’s antimagic to fail, but he instead made Alexia immune to the field’s effect, allowing her (and only her) to be able to function through it. Her healing kept Meroln and his companions alive long enough for them to finally slay the dragon.

As we parted for the evening, the group was standing exhausted in the dragon’s lair, surveying the corpses and the piles of loot they had yet to sort through…

While the rest of her party was preparing to Teleport into position to ambush Scalero, Shen Fo, Gulmara and the others, Alexia was finishing another drink at Galasso’s Gate. Before she could order another, the strange woman she’d seen in there once before approached her and told her that her companions were preparing an ambush, and passed her a note with the address they would be at. Then she vanished.

Meanwhile, across town, our band successfully Teleported into the apartment where their prey where holed up, and with surprise on their side, quickly slew Gulmara before turning their attentions on Scalero and the others. Ezekos emerged from another room, and was quickly joined by a valley elf druid named Kambros and a mage (whose name was never mentioned) who burst in through a window.

Soon enough the would-be ambushers lay dead, unconscious or in Exekos’ case, surrendered, only the wizard escaping. Alexia, arriving at last, met with Kambros as he attempted to flee out the same window he’s broken to arrive, was blasted unconscious by the inebriated cleric as she entered the alley. As the sounds of a guardsman’s whistle could be heard in the distance, the party tossed their dead opponents into Bags of Holding, and slung the unconscious ones over their shoulders, and fled towards the docks, seeking a deserted warehouse in which to question the survivors. Meroln then departed for his assignation with Jenny, and Alexia returned to the Green Dragon Inn to sleep off her inebriation.

Ezekos and Kambros had little enough to say, telling the group little they did not know except that the price on Sam’s head had risen to 8000 gold, and that his wanted poster now included information lightly sketching the rest of his companions, with the admonition that they would fight to defend him. Eventually Elerra used her sleep poison to drug both men, leaving their bound forms in the ruins of Castle Greyhawk.

The next morning the group decided that their habits and choice of habitations had grown a bit too predictable, so they evacuated the Green Dragon and took up residence at the Crippled Griffon several blocks away. Once there, it was suggested over breakfast that if Alexis’ father would permit, perhaps the group could establish a tower or other sort of fortress there, to help against the impending threat of the Pomarj. It was also suggested that perhaps the group could also stay at the Aerogenesis mansion outside the city.

Deciding that there was little enough time to waste, the group gathered their belongings and conjured mounts for themselves as necessary. As they neared the gates, however, a young girl of perhaps 7 or eight years, ran right up to Alexia’s clockwork mount and pleaded with her to accompany her to help her father, who was sick and near death. Though suspicious, she agreed to accompany the urchin.

Following the child into the seedier part of town, she finally led Alexia and company to a shack, which she implored Alexia to enter. Inside she found that the shack was little more than the terminus of a 60’ tunnel, leading down into the earth. Sam followed closely, and Elerra, who was watching Alexia via crystal ball, became quite concerned when she lost contact almost immediately. The rest of the group soon followed, leaving Wilfred behind to guard the mounts.

At the end of the tunnel, the urchin left Alexia alone with Roderick Kalisah, the Cleric of Daern the group had recently rescued from the lair of the black dragon they’d slain in the swamp weeks before. Kalisah still bore many of the wounds from that encounter, his hands not yet fully regenerated and his legs had been amputated below the knee. He thanked Alexia for coming, and apologized for the deception.

He offered Alexia (and her companions, who were slowly but surely joining them in the room) a trade: promise to rescue his wife and daughter, and get them to safety off-world, and he would tell them of a plot against her and her companions being hatched by his superiors. Alexia agreed, and he told them what he knew.

First, he told her that her that Jaliseem Tandovr, sister to Janos, the current commander of the Black Rook Company, belonged to something known as the Path, and that she seemed to have a great interest in eliminating Alexia and her friends. He further related that their father, Elias Tandovr, was rumored to have maybe been one of the Hierarchs of the Horned Society, which was destroyed by the Empire of Iuz in the opening moves of the Greyhawk Wars. he expressed his disaffection with his company upon learning these things, but he feared for the safety of his family should his superiors learn of his disloyalty. he stated that Jaliseem and Janos could both likely be found at their HQ near the Riftcanyon.

The party wanted to take Kalisah to safety as well, but he argued against it, saying that his people were keeping close tabs on him, and that any sign of his defection would likely result in quick retribution against his wife and daughter. he gave Alexia their address, and told her that she had family on Beregond, in a city called Suzail in a place called Baronia. He gave her a ring to help alleviate any doubts his wife might have. Leaving Kalisah, the group quickly found a spelljammer scheduled to travel to Baronia and then found and convinced Kalisah’s wife and daughter to accompany them.

It took most of a week to reach their destination, and it took most of another week to find a vessel intending to return to Greyhawk. Once back on Liga, the group holed up in the Aerogenesis Manor and used their crystal ball to scry out a series of locations they could use to Teleport to in their efforts to reach the town of Longwood in Sunndi (this being the town nearest to Lake Menosh where Elerra had previously scryed a likely entrance to the lair). Leaving on the last day of Growfest, it took several more days to reach a site several miles outside of Longwood. On the final night of their journey, Sam had another dream.

Alexia and Meroln went in as advance scouts, and to ask the Priest of Pelor in Longwood for any help and information he could provide them. Said Priest, Kasem Hadar, welcomed the both of them, and readily agreed to assist them, though he said that previous hopeful dragon-slayers had never returned. He confirmed the probable location of the lair, and related that the region had once been dominated by a great old wyrm named Verdraxilius. He had sired a brood of four dragons, the eldest of which, Nervizix, had been the first to return and challenge his dominance. Nervizix died, but Verdraxilius was injured, and eventually fled the region before the rest of his children could arrive to challenge him. When the other three did arrive, Skapamoor defeated the others and claimed the region.

Perhaps 20 years previous, Skapamoor ceased leaving his lair. Rumor said that he had taken a local ogress shaman as a consort, and soon several half-dragon young could be seen hunting and raiding on his behalf in the region. He also added that perhaps eight years previous, a strange group claiming to be dragon-slayers had passed through the region, seeking Skapamoor, though Hadar found them… unsavory. The strangers had not returned.

As we parted for the evening, Alexia and Meroln were making their way back to their companions…

The party spent the rest of Readying either manufacturing items themselves, or having them crafted for them, then spent six days riding back out to Narwell to recover their incantation scroll, deliver Garrosh’s axe to Baron Aerogenesis as a trophy, and to pickup Alexia’s clockwork mount. The trip back to Greyhawk was expedited by Teleport spells.

Finding themselves without a patron or clear goals, they decided to try and help Squizzles finish his quest to collect dragon scales for his tribe. To further this aim, they asked about the city for the possible locations of a white, red, or green dragon, and Squizzles found a hobgoblin who called himself Ezekos who knew of a green dragon named Skapamoor who was known to lair somewhere in the Menowood, near the Great Swamp in Sunndi.

Sharing this information with the rest of the group soon found Elerra holed up with her crystal ball trying to suss out possible locations for the dragon’s lair, but the best she could do was track a trio of green half-dragons to the shores of Lake Menosh before her scrying was blocked by something beneath the water.

As the group discussed their options later that day in the Green Dragon, a number of things happened more or less at the same time. Squizzles spotted Ezekos exit from one of the private back rooms and stop at a table where a tiefling and a sylph were sharing a meal before exiting, Alexis and Wilfred got into a shouting match over a blend of money, tactics, and goals, and Meroln noticed Jenny the barmaid flirting with him.

In short order thereafter, Alexia stormed out of the Inn, eventually making her way back to Galasso’s Gate, where she proceeded to get quite sloshed. Sam slipped away from the table and went upstairs, drank a potion of Invisibility, then returned to watch Ezekos’ friends. Meroln set up a date with Jenny after her shift ended, and stepped out to find something to prevent unwanted pregnancies, while Elerra sent Ezekos’ friends some drinks. The two men soon joined the remains of the party, saying that now the rest of the patrons could save themselves the trouble of trying to stare at two tables, now that all the weirdos were concentrated at just one.

They introduced themselves as Scalero (tiefling) and Shen Fo (sylph), claimed to have just arrived in the city after guarding a flotilla of Rhenee barges making their way across the Nyr Dyv and down the Selintarn for some kind of celebration. Over idle chitchat, they wondered about Sam’s origins, calling him a walktapus, and remarking that they’d heard of such a creature in the lands of Doraster to the far west (or far east, across the Solnor Ocean). Sam spoke up at that point, and the two men told him what they’d heard about walktapi, namely that they were monsters, and that it was odd to find one so civilized (if that were what Sam was, indeed).

Eventually Elerra made her goodnights, quickly joined by the rest of the group. Once in her room, she scryed the odd pair, watching them finish their drinks downstairs then walk a block or two away and take a narrow set of stairs to an apartment nearby, where a woman named Gulmara (probably a spellcaster of some sort, based on her garb), a man named Helmuth (probably a warrior of some type, based on his armor) sat discussing the current locations of Meroln and Alexia with a myna bird that sat in the middle of their table.

Elerra went down the hall to Wilfred and Squizzle’s room, and then got Sam to join them as they watched the other group plot against them. She used her crystal ball to find Meroln and used Message to urge him to return, and as she switched back to the other group, she heard the myna bird declare that Meroln was returning to the Inn at a run, prompting Helmuth to begin fastening the rest of his armor with the aid of an Invisible Servant, and for Gulmara to begin setting out potion bottles on the table, arranging them by type.

As we broke for the evening, the party was casting prep spells and preparing to ambush their ambushers…

After much deliberation, the party decided to wait for the next full moon and to use the multitude of casters in Alexia’s family to fuel their incantation. On the 11th, they gathered with the scions of the Aerogenesis family and the priestesses of Murlynd at used their incantation to arrive on the balcony where their crystal ball showed Garrosh, his pet drow, and some of his honor guard were stationed, observing the defense of “their” city.

As they arrived on the scene, Elerra and Alexia both promptly blasted the assembly, while Meroln charged the drow sorceress, who eventually fell to her death without casting a spell (other can attempting to use her innate Levitate to try and escape). When Garrosh finally had a chance to react, he brought his axe Slave-cleaver to bear against Meroln, quickly driving him to the floor unconscious.

As Sam moved into position to divert Garrosh, more of Garrosh’s allies began to emerge onto the parapet, including a man in a sealed helm that the group quickly recognized as a follower of Mabelrode, like their previous patron, Galen. As Sam discovered to his sorrow, the man (who proved to be a priest) wielded a wicked blade that moaned at Sam after he was struck by it.

As more and more of his followers fell, Garrosh took one chance to strike at Alexia, who had thought herself safely out of reach, bringing Slave-cleaver to bear courtesy of his Ring of Far Striking, but before long, he himself fell beneath the party’s blades. The priest, seeing his allies lying in ruin at his feet, pushed a freshly healed Meroln off the battlements, but Meroln spent one of his Hero Points to drink a Potion of Flying on the way down, saving himself from a brutal 70’ plunge. The priest soon used an item to Word of Recall himself safely away, and the group used the chaos of the battle playing itself out in the city streets below to escape.

The group took shelter in a nearby cavern, striking deep into the Underdark in an effort to escape the milling throngs of orcs no doubt combing the countryside for them. Eventually Elerra’s pleas to her goddess led the group to a portal that dumped them out in the upper works of Castle Greyhawk.

As we broke for the evening, the group was selling their loot, and looking for their next adventure. Sam took a ship to Hardby to see a man named Murray, who had been recommended to him as an expert in “fancifying” weapons that might someday bear names…

As Wilfred and his drow-balloon closed on the dragon, it paused mid-flight to deal with the Sam hanging from it’s entryway. While it mauled Sam to unconsciousness, Elerra (who dropped to the ground once she was in range) began repeatedly blasting it with fireballs, as Wilfred and Mekkatorque closed to melee. As the others slogged into position, Squizzles eventually dispelled the dragon’s Mage Armor, allowing Wilfred and his eidolon an improved chance to hit.

Eventually the dragon collapsed, just missing crushing Sam’s unconscious form. Wilfred bathed Bloodweaver in it’s heart-blood, and the sword awakened. Once within the lair, they healed the BRC cleric of Daern they had seen there, whose name turned out to be Roderick Kalisah, and brought him along with them as they made their way back to Greyhawk. Amongst the treasures of the lair they found plenty of coinage, but also a large amount of antique furniture, elven wines, even some aged cheese. The sole magic item the dragon possessed was it’s Crystal Ball, which could scry an area with Clairaudience, but lacked any ability to scry other planes. The party spent an overlong time making their way back to the city, stopping along the way to redistribute some of their wealth, but wasted no time once the moon was full and they could once more use their incantation.

Once in Greyhawk, they dropped Kalisah off with his own people and returned to the Green Dragon Inn to plan their next objective. On the 13th of Fireseek, Alexia, still despondent over the ending of her engagement, went out on her own, finally ensconcing herself at an establishment called Galasso’s Gate, a luxurious inn on the outskirts of the Park District. While there, a young fop by the name of Milo Valaam tried to pick her up, but she rebuffed him.

The following morning, over breakfast at the Green Dragon, she heard others talking about the murder of her erstwhile suitor, found in a locked room with no way anyone could have escaped from the room he was found in (his parents having already hired arcane investigators to establish this fact). While obviously not under any suspicion for the crime herself, Alexia did remember seeing a strange woman of an unknown race in the bar that evening, a short, wiry girl with luxuriant black and silver hair.

Having done all the research they could in the city, the group set out for the city of Narwell at Alexia’s request. She wanted to see her parents, and reasoned that the group with the best knowledge of Garrosh and his movements would be the people who had dealt with him the most often. Elerra also wanted to dig up the bones of his son, Thrall, known to have fallen outside Narwell in the last big battle, for use in improving their ability to use the crystal ball to scry out his location and activities. So Alexia brought her companions home to meet the family.

Baroness Victoria received her unexpected house-guests with good grace, her professional calm only slipping once as she surveyed the people her daughter had taken up with. After dinner, Baron Colman Aerogenesis arrived, and greeted his guests. As the night wound down, Alexia withdrew to her parent’s apartments to commiserate with them, learning that according to Stryker’s retainers, he had sent several messages to her by way of the manor outside Greyhawk, though Alexia had never received any. Much relieved by her parent’s comfort, she slept well for the remainder of the night.

The following three days were spent excavating the mass grave where the bodies of the orcs had been thrown after the last fight, and eventually Thrall’s remains were identified. Seeking even further information, the group was referred to a middle-aged halfling named Kalik Brightblade, a former adventurer who had spent several years in and around the Pomarj before and after Turrosh Mak’s rise to power there.

Kalik told the group that unlike most “orcish hordes”, Turrosh Mak’s “Empire of the Pomarj” was and would remain the most dire threat to civilization in the region for some time to come. Himself only half-orcish, Mak had managed to unite all the warring orc, goblin, hobgoblin, and even kobold tribes of the region under his banner, and was carefully forging them into a well-oiled fighting force. He told how they would build a city from scratch, learn how to defend it, then another group would assault the city, learning how to bring it down despite the efforts of the first group. He told a very convincing tale of how when they were ready, they would doubtless sweep north, taking the remaining cities and towns of the Wild Coast, until either Queen Yolande of Celene stirred herself, or the Domain of Greyhawk was forced to take the field against them.

Armed with the bones of his heir, and Kalik’s stories of the interior, Elerra set herself to scrying out Garrosh’s location. Her crystal ball found him standing on the ramparts of a coastal town or city, with a drow follower of Zinzerena utilizing a silver bowl to scry for him the location of three ships brimming with soldiers who were doubtless there to raid “his” town.

As we broke for the evening, the group was determining the best way of reaching Garrosh’s location, and planning as well how to best escape with their lives…

Having taken up residency in the local millinery, the group waited for eight days for the merrow to re-appear, only to learn from Marshall McFly on the last day of their wait that a runner from Brumblefork (the next village south), had arrived telling how “the army” had shown up and slain the merrow when they came calling at their village. Upon hearing this news, the party departed to Brumblefork, hoping to be able to interrogate the merrow’s corpses at least for a lead as to the dragon’s lair.

On arriving in South Brumble on the 3rd of Needfest, they learned that “the army” was actually a band of mercenaries they were familiar with, namely the Black Rook Company, who had been hired by the local lord to “deal with” the ogre problem. They had taken the bodies of the ogres with them when they left, so the party was stalled yet again.

They asked the local tavern-keeper (whose business had been booming with the mercenaries in town, so much so that he’d bought a cartload of lumber to renovate his tavern). if anyone knew the swamp well enough to help them find a dragon’s lair, he recommended a local trapper by the name of Maurice. When Maurice finally arrived in town 2 days later, they learned he was a halfling. While he knew nothing about any dragons, he did mention that he’d heard that someone had moved into the burnt out tower on the eastern edge of the swamp, so maybe the facts were related. For a nominal fee, he agreed to ferry the group out to the tower’s location.

After two grueling days crossing the swamp in pole barges, Maurice finally pointed out the squat tower in the distance. The group thanked him for his service, then set out on foot through the cold mud and snow flurries towards the tower. Wilfred overflew the region, spotting the skeletons of a large host of lizard-folk decaying in the fields around the tower, with a few hobgoblin skeletons mixed in as well. A nearby grove of somewhat freshly cut stumps lay in the distance, and the tower itself boasted a relatively new quilt of canvas covering the hole in the tower’s roof.

Investigating the tower, they found obvious signs of eight merrow living inside, though none were present. Also inside they found a framework for building a ship, which seemed odd as there was no way for a ship that size to have been removed from the tower (unless it went straight up). Also present was a large cauldron containing a rank stew, left over coals to keep it cooking. Examining the two logs supporting the canvas ceiling, it was obvious that the merrow could not have placed them, but that a large dragon might have done so. A more thorough search of the underworks located a broken dragon claw that had been used to scratch the likeness of a black dragon into one of the walls, as well.

Eventually the group decided to retreat from the tower and setup a watch from the stump-field nearby. As dusk fell, they could hear a pair of merrow singing s they approached the tower, bearing with them a sling of booty and a dire boar for dinner. Elerra, capitalizing on her heritage, attempted to convince the merrow that she and her companions were also servants of the dragon, but as the merrow prepared the boar and put the stew on a full boil, Meroln detected that they were stalling for time, and elected to attack them.

Quickly dispatched, the party then erased the signs of their entry to the tower, and hid in the shattered upper works to await whatever the merrow had been waiting for. Near midnight their vigil was rewarded as another four merrow could be seem running for the safety of the tower, pursued by unknown foes. As they neared the tower, however, one of them must have spotted something, as he cried out to his fellows and all four began attempting to run around the tower to escape. Two were quickly put down by the arty, while the other pair made their escape.

Soon thereafter, the merrow’s pursuers revealed themselves as a group of 24 soldiers of the Black Rook Company. Their leader, a lieutenant who gave his name as Arlen Gris, spoke with the group, and seemed quite shocked and dismayed to find Alexis among their number. When questioned, he made every effort not to be the bearer of bad news, but Alexis eventually managed to pull out of him that her fiance, Colman Stryker, unbeknownst to her, had broken off their engagement and was currently courting another woman, namely Jaliseem Tandor, who happened to be the twin sister to Janos Tandor, the leader of the Black Rook Company. He also attempted to lie about the merrow being in the service of a dragon, but try as she might, she could not get him to reveal what he knew.

Eventually the Black Rooks set off in the direction the merrow had fled in, and the group bedded down outside the tower to await the dawn. The next morning Alexis prayed for and cast a Divination, which revealed a route to the dragon’s lair some 30 miles distant. As the group made their way there, they came upon the remains of the bulk of the Black Rook Company, most of whom had fallen victim to the dragon’s breath weapon from the signs they could find.

When they finally reached the site of the lair, Alexis sent one of her clockwork scouts inside the hill to find the dragon, which it eventually did. Inside the caves where it laired, she found yet another member of the Black Rooks, one of their clerics, who was missing both arms below the elbow and whose legs looked unable to support his weight anymore. By repeating the words being spoken to Squizzles, they figured that the cleric was trying to assure the dragon that the situation was still recoverable (whatever that meant) while the dragon seemed genuinely pissed about yet another group of mortals intruding on his solitude. Said mortals (the party) were clearly visible (except for Elerra, who was guarded from scrying) in the crystal ball it was consulting at the time.

Realizing that the gig was up, Wilfred spent a hero point to cast Communal Nondetection, but as soon as the party “went dark” in the dragon’s crystal ball, Alexis’s scout alerted her that the dragon was on the move. Sam, who had stealthed earlier and had Spider Climbed to the top of the cavern’s exit at about the same time Alexis’ scout was entering the complex knew nothing of all this, so was surprised when the dragon blew past his position in flight and craned his neck back to breathe on him.

Wilfred, Mekkatorque and Elerra Dimension Doored to close the quarter mile of distance between themselves and the dragon, and as we broke for the evening, the group was preparing to meet the dragon in the skies outside it’s lair…

Sam and Wilfred quickly pursued the lead werewolf, taking different paths as the underwater path branched. Meroln turned and began “taking out the trash”, carving his way through the lesser werewolves. Wilfred’s path eventually led him outside, emerging from one of the hot spring pools on the eastern side of the river, while Sam eventually caught up to the head of the pack in a watery chamber where he’d paused to drink a potion.

Deducing that the pool the lead werewolf had leapt into probably connected to the pools outside, Elerra, Squizzles and Alexia made their way outside as well, pursued closely by a trio of the lesser wolves. Meanwhile, Sam briefly had a chance to stab the lead werewolf, injuring him, but the werewolf them did something to cloud the water, temporarily blinding Sam and allowing him to flee.

Meroln, seeing the werewolves fleeing down the corridor gave chase, leaving one wolf behind, who, in the absence of everyone else, decided to try and steal Sam’s mithril rapier, still stuck in the door. Back to him later.

Outside, seeing no enemies to deal with, Wilfred and Mekkatorque elected to dive back underwater to look for the head werewolf. Alexia, Squizzles and Elerra, who were waiting for something to happen, unloaded on the werewolves who came pouring out of the waterfall. When the greater werewolf came bursting out of one of the pools on the west side of the river, their readied actions were already spent, allowing the wolf to breathe frost on them before Elerra finally neutralized him with one of her poisoned crossbow bolts. As she and her fellows finished off the leader, those subordinates who were present attempted to surrender, but were slain regardless.

Eventually both Meroln and Wilfred, (who had re-emerged from the pool inside the complex and flown past the werewolf inside who was still trying to free Sam’s rapier from the door) informed Sam of this event, and Sam wasted no time going after his weapon, only to find it and the werewolf already missing. Seeing that one of the rotating walls had already been reset, he used the other one to enter the secret areas, then reset it again so that others might join him.

The passage Sam found himself in led upwards, then opened into a large cavern where the dilapidated remains of a small gnomish town. The sounds of rushing paws could be heard from the far side of the chamber, and Sam gave chase. He lost yet more time trying to divine which of the several gnome-sized tunnels his quarry had taken, but eventually resumed his pursuit on hands and knees.

About the time Meroln entered the town, there werewolf in question could be heard taunting Sam, thanking him for the lovely sword and saying that he could see daylight and that Sam would never catch him. While this was going on, Elerra took the time to cut into the lead werewolf’s chest and to bathe her amulet in his heart’s blood, activating it’s legendary abilities.

Sam finally emerged from the tunnels, pushing his way into the light and noting the trail of disturbed pine needles leading north. His cry of rage alerted the others, who gave chase as well, finally locating the fleeing wolf and killing him, revealing that despite his boasts, he did not have the rapier on his person.

Eventually, everyone returned to the gnomish town, and a search of the ruined buildings was conducted, and Detect Magic soon located Sam’s rapier, as well as the werewolf’s breastplate, sword, and shield. The party elected to camp out in the ruins for the next two days, awaiting the full moon on the 18th, when they used their invocation to return to Greyhawk.

Arriving in the city, they spent another two days further researching rumors of the dragon they suspected was lairing in the Mistmarsh. Deciding to investigate in person, they rode out to the village of Vrag’s Crossing.

At the edges of the village they were met by Temal McFly, the village’s marshal. Though clearly suspicious of the party (especially Squizzles and Meroln, whose armor looked quite threatening), he eventually warmed to them enough to discuss the villages troubles. He explained that the merrow came to collect their tribute every 7-12 days, and that they had killed the mayor’s daughter when the village had initially refused to pay, and that while they demanded gold, they were willing to accept ’alternate" forms of payment (since gold was in such short supply).

He led the party out to the docks where the merrow generally approached the town, and pointed to the lump of earth 50 yards away that they generally appeared from. The party elected to remain in town until the next return of the merrow, and Sam gave the marshal a donation of 50 gold in case they failed to deal with the merrow.

As we broke for the evening, the party was negotiating with the local miller for space in his millinery, and plotting the ambush they hoped to launch against the merrow the next time they appeared….

As Wilfred and Elerra pressed their attack on the riders, Alexia flew to join them as the rest of the party made their way into the keep from the roof. As Elerra used her Wand of Fireballs to rain fire down on the fleeing werewolves, Wilfred (by way of Mekkatorque) and Alexis also did some damage, but eventually they tired of this sport and rejoined the others, initially heedless of the fires they’d set in the process.

On their way back to the tower, however, they encountered the first guard who had fled, now in full wolf form, running to join his pack. They trapped and killed him for his trouble.

Their search of the tower revealed that all of the werewolves had fled, leaving behind their treasure and a caged feline (black and silver tabby) that fled as soon as Meroln released it. By the time the group was finished looting the tower, the forest fire had spread to both sides of the road, and Meroln, the only one who either lacked the ability to Fly or was too heavy to be carried along by those who did, was forced to run the 1/8th of a mile gauntlet through the fire wrapped in wet rags.

Once through the worst of it, the group returned to the village of Maddle’s Run to warn them of the fire (deftly not mentioning how or who started it, though the villagers all clearly had their suspicions). They then spent most of the night helping to dig fire breaks and otherwise help defend the town and fields from the fire. Then they slept until nightfall of the following day, noticed that the cat they’d “rescued” had made it’s way to town, tried befriending it, then retired for the evening.

The following morning over breakfast, the group witnessed an older villager rounding up several cronies to go grab some “freebies”. Following the villagers, the group re-encountered three of the werewolves’ mounts, which they then eventually tracked back to a cave behind a waterfall near a hot spring. Working their way inside the cave (while avoiding the treacherous ground around the springs), Wilfred thought that the craftsmanship of the tunnel might be gnomish.

The first chamber they encountered had a “wet” floor (something that the tunnel leading to it seemed well designed to prevent). Sam spider climbed his way to the door leading our of the room. He noted two semi-circular grooves cut into the floor of the room, along the side walls, and while checking the door for traps spotted one that seemed designed to dump the everburning torch by the door (or, rather, the ember concealed beneath it) into the oil covering the floor of the room. Having disabled that trap (more by accident than design), he then heard the sound of a hand drill against the far side of the door, and when it finally burst through, he quickly skewered the metal tube that emerged from the hole with his scimitar, but his vigorous thrust also succeeded in wedging his rapier in the hole, as well. Meroln, who had been biding his time, also chose to charge the door at this time, slamming it open (without breaking the blade of Sam’s rapier) and attacking the werewolf on the far side. The werewolf in question breathed fire like a dragon, singeing Meroln and setting the oil in the chamber aflame.

In the same moment, the two side walls of the chamber pivoted, unleashing a small horde of werewolves who began attacking everyone within reach. Wilfred Dimension Doored in behind the werewolf Meroln was attacking, but it managed to tumble past him and fled down the hall, eventually leaping into a pool located at the end of the hall.

As we broke for the evening, the fight in the chamber was still going, while bubbles were all that was left of the lead werewolf’s trail…

As dawn came on the morning of the 4th, the party and their entourage of a dozen former slaves made their way through the gates and into the City of Greyhawk. Not knowing what else to do with their charges, they brought them to the Temple of Tritherion so they could remain free and acclimate. When the group arrived at the Green Dragon Inn, however, Galen was not yet in attendance and Jenny did not know when he would be back. She led them upstairs to their rooms and promised them that she’d let them know when he returned.

The group spent the next three days trying to move the massive amount of loot they’d brought home from Fansteris, and knew they’d probably put a huge dent in the economy, as they got far less than the usual prices for so much magic. Elerra also spent many hours at the Shrine of Ellistrae, praying over her amulet, trying to divine it’s purpose. Her prayers were awarded by a series of visions that saw the amulet begin to glow with a inner light as Elerra stood over the body of a powerful lycanthrope as it breathed it’s last.

Wilfred also sought knowledge in his off hours, learning that since the dust-up in the Mistmarsh several weeks past, local villages had reported that a band of swamp-merrow had been seen in the region, extorting protection money for their master, whom they claimed was a powerful dragon.

And finally, Alexis, who sought guidance in bringing her staff to it’s full potential, saw herself standing over the body of Thrall, the orc war-chief who had long plagued her family and the city of Narwell.

After three days, jenny finally sent for the group, as Galen had returned.

Meeting once more in the back room he favored, Galen listened stoically as the group told the tale of the fight in House Lalander, though he was interested in how Alda had swallowed (and presumably destroyed) the Diamond Frog (as well as Justinian). The party further offered him Alda’s corpse, which he took, claiming that Tenser would no doubt want to examine it. He paid them for the delivery of the Jade Frog, and finished the meeting by saying that he regretfully would have no further jobs that would match their talents until late spring (Wealsun) of 601 CY. If they were interested, they would be able to find him there. He then departed.

Soon after this meeting, Sam realized that the lump under his tongue felt itchy; when he opened his mouth to let his companions examine it, a long, barbed tongue-whip burst forth, stinging Meroln on the forehead and paralyzing him briefly. Nobody knew quite what to make of this development. All agreed it bore more study, but nobody volunteered as a guinea pig.

The group then spent most of Patchwall in the City, crafting various items (or having them crafted) and generally burning through the bulk of the funds they’d just made. Having previously agreed to remain together as a group, and judging that the lycanthrope was the easiest of the tasks they’d chosen, they made plans to travel north. On the last day of the month they finally rode out of the city, bound for the Clatspur Mountains, by way of Furyondy and Ket.

Once in the foothills of the Clatspurs, the group began searching for rumors of the lycanthrope they sought.

Many villagers told them tales of how another adventuring band had passed through the region several weeks past, and massacred an army of hobgoblins in the service or Maerdan and the Temple of Wounds to the north. Into this power vacuum had stepped a mysterious werewolf who had infected a group of bandits and claimed them as his pack. It was said that this werewolf could breath fire, ice, and thunder, and that all who stood against him were slain or made member of his pack.

Most knew of the keep he’d claimed for his followers, and the group took their time making their way to the gates. At the first sight of the adventurers, one of the guards fled, screaming his head off about invaders. The second door guard was quickly slain by Meroln. Sam climbed the walls, and as the rest of the group made their way to the top of the keep, the two guards there were also quickly slain.

Meanwhile, the door they’d abandoned on ground level burst open, and nearly a dozen hybrid-form werewolves rode their warhorses back along the road towards town, presumably fleeing for their lives much as the first guard had done. Wilfred and Mekkatorque began towing the Levitating Elerra in pursuit, and that is where we broke for the evening.

Following the directions of their locator crystal, they finally found it after kicking in the last door in the right. Inside, they easily saw the Jade Frog, sitting on a pedestal at the back of the room, protected by a fusion of a spherical Wall of Force and an electrical Flaming Sphere. Also in the room was Klusk, Arquen’s servant from Episode 5. Meroln informed him that he would not be leaving this time, and battle was (briefly) joined. As the party was finishing off Klusk, shouts and running feet could be heard coming from the lower floors.

However, before they left the room, a short saloon-style bar manifested at the rear of the room. A faceless servant poured seven mugs of beer (one very small) and a saucer of milk, and Alexia felt certain that this was a boon from her god, Murlynd, and assured her companions that it was safe to drink. Thus refreshed and revitalized, the party moved to establish a choke point at the stairs leading up to the floor they were on.

The foes they faced were a mix of the Blessed Children they’d been pursuing since Hepmonaland, and the matriarch of House Lalander and her heir. Many of these worthies were still injured from their battle at House Nashamal, but it still took quite a long time to defeat them. In the end, only Alda, the matriarch of Lalander stood against the party, and as Wilfred and Mekkatorque brought her near death, she pulled the Diamond Frog from the bag at her belt and monologued “I am not Muldar, a mere penitent to the Path, I am a full initiate!” She then distended her jaw and swallowed the Diamond Frog, healing all her wounds.

As more of the party joined in against Alda, she used a Curse Ability spell on Sam to sever his ability to Backstab, then later, as she neared death again, she stretched out her hand towards Justinian, who had just rounded the corner, used Telekinesis to draw him into her hand, then again distended her jaw, and swallowed HIM whole, once more healing all her wounds. As more of the party became free to help deal with the matriarch, she soon found herself slain. She was immediately cut open, but no trace of either the Diamond Frog nor of Justinian could be found. The party then used Dispel Magic to remove the electrical sphere from around the Jade Frog, and rounded up the house slaves who had hidden themselves all over the manor. Tokram excused himself from the manor after the group explained to him that they would effect their own escape. Those slaves who desired freedom were invited to accompany the party back to Greyhawk, those who did not wish were free to remain there. As midnight approached, the group began to cast their incantation, and arrived on the outskirts of the city an hour before dawn.

The following morning the group started for Tenser’s castle early, and arrived by mid-afternoon the following day. There they were introduced to a gnome wizard by the name of Vodoth Steamwhistle, one of the Grand Mages of the Duchy of Baercan. After a brief round of introductions and chatter regarding their destination, Vodoth sent them on their way to the City of Baerdan, the capital of Baercan.

At the terminus of the Teleport Circle Vodoth had opened for them, the group was met by a gnome who gave his name as Waldo, who escorted the party from the Plaza of Wizardry to the Transport Hub. Along the way the group gawked at the horde of steam-powered bikes much of the populace used for transport, as well as the pall of smoke that clocked the city and nearly hid the zeppelins that were flying above.

After allowing the party to stock up on anti-toxins for the Vishkanyan’s natural poisons, they were taken to the top of the Transport Hub and firmly strapped into their pod and then hurled by massive springs at nearly 400 mph to arrive at the Wall in the province of Nulmar. In Nulmar they were met by a group of gnomes who were obviously using code-names, such as Mr. Black, Mr. White, and Mr. Orange. Mr. Orange led the party from the Transport Hub to the Underground Railroad, which was revealed to be a series of metal coaches pulled along tracks by a huge hexapodal beast of some sort, like a bullette built for speed.

The group was given paperwork that identified them as factors for one of the pirate companies operating our of Flurosor, as well as given disguises to better look the part. Squizzles seemed especially thrilled to be playing the parts of pirates. Their “escort”, while in the city, was identified as a native vishkanyan by the name of Tokram, who was being well paid to squire them wherever in the city they wished to go, though they were warned that under no circumstances should they expect him to help them fight or engage in acts of sabotage.

While the gnomes did not know the current disposition of the rival group, the Diamond Frog was known to be in the possession of the Matriarch of House Nashamal, one of the noble families of Fansteris Fansteris.

The journey by rail took a little over three hours, and the terminus of the line was beneath a large warehouse staffed by human slaves of Touv descent. They group was collected by Tokram and led out into the streets.

The city of Unjulru boasted tall buildings of brick and wood, some as high as eight or nine stories tall. Everyone seemed to be in a uniform of some sort, and there were clearly groups circulating through the crowds watching everyone and checking the identification papers everyone seemed to have at random. Since it was getting late, Tokram brought the group to a hotel that catered to foreigners, and before leaving for the night, he allowed the group to bribe him to “ask some questions” to help find the rival group.

The following morning he told the group that their rivals were currently the honored guests of House Lalander, another noble house noted for it’s mastery of the arcane. Through a combination of sending Justinian out to scout invisibly, and further questioning/bribing Tokram (and everyone in the group spending a Hero Point) it was revealed that House Lalander was hosting their rivals because the rivals had used the Jade Frog as a bargaining tool. Intrigued by the powers of the Jade Frog, House Lalander now desired the Diamond Frog for their own, and were likely planning to assault their manor to take it in the next few days. As a further complication, Klusk (from Episode 5 is also a guest of House Lalander.

Furthermore, it was learned that House Lalander was planning to assault House Nashamal in two days, to take the Diamond Frog for their own. So the party began planning their own assault, planning to raid House Lalander while they were off raiding the other House. On the morning of the 3rd of Brewfest (a holiday neither celebrated nor recognized by the locals), minutes after Lalander’s best and brightest sallied forth to do battle, the party picked the lock on their front door and entered the premises. Tokram promptly went and sat in their parlor, ordering a house slave to bring him tea.

Scattering house slaves in their wake, the party followed their detection crystal to the fourth floor of the manor, and soon made contact with the guards left behind. Several rounds later, those guards lay defeated, and after healing themselves, the search for the Jade Frog’s location began in earnest…

The previous evening saw Elerra, Wilfred, Squizzles and Alexia going out on the town, for the expressed purpose of “removing the stick wedged up Alexia’s ass”. By all accounts the event was a success, causing Alexia to be hung over for the morning’s exertions. Sam, who slept the night away, had a dream that he believed was an actual memory from his youth, but a very perplexing dream it was…

Coming downstairs the morning of the 26th, Elerra once again spotted the ugly guy sitting at his usual table in the inn, but his table guest caused her to retreat back up the stairs trailing her companions. Though he resembled a surface elf, said companion was the spitting image of a former suitor of hers in the Vault, namely Razaharren of House Xaniqos.

After a brief discussion with her allies, Elerra decided to go straight to the heart of the matter, and joined the two at their table, her companions taking seats nearby. Razaharren greeted her warmly, saying how much she was missed by her family and the Priestess-hood, and intimating that the drow who brought her home could write their own ticket (his ticket, apparently, being given her hand in marriage). He then banged both of his hands on the table, and several things happened at once.

A dozen men who had been seated at tables near the back room where the group had traditionally met with Galen all rose as one and stormed the back room, and several more armored men threw off their cloaks and attacked the party. Elerra headed for the top of the stairs, and as the rest of the party coped with her former beau, Grot (Razaharren had used his name at the table) and their retinue of mercenaries, fought her urge to flee. Finally, when Grot took to the stairs in pursuit of her did she begin to act. She eventually caved in his skull with her mace, and soon thereafter Razaharren also fell, though he had tried to escape through use of his Deeper Darkness ability.

In the end, only the three of the six mercenaries survived, and only the dwarven warlock they’d brought for fire support escaped. Galen emerged from the back room drenched in gore (none of it his own) and corralled the innkeeper to help deal with the responding city watch (who also claimed the captured mercenaries from the party).

An hour or two afterwards, the group met with Galen who explained that he, through Tenser, had arranged their travel to the Duchy of Baercanon Kanos, which would put them within striking distance of both their adversaries from Ikelan as well as the final Frog, which was being held by the Nashamal family in the city of Unjulru in Fansteris, which lay to the north of Baercan.

He explained that Fansteris was a land ruled by the Vishkanyas, a serpent-folk who had once ruled a vast slave-empire in the region, but which was currently much reduced in size. Naturally poisonous, they were said to rule their current lands as a matriarchy with an iron fist. “Extra” males were cast out and left to fend for themselves, most joining “fighting academies” who then hired out their services as mercenaries. Most were also devil-worshipers, who practiced the arts of witchcraft or followed the path of the sha’ir.

Should they successfully navigate the treacherous natives and their former adversaries (who had already arrived in Unjulru and were doubtless making their own plans to acquire the final Frog), he agreed to pay them the sum of 10,000 gp (half, as usual, in advance) each. As he was providing them the means of reaching Kanos, and they had their own means of easily returning, no travel fees seemed necessary.

As we broke for the evening, the group was leveling themselves and shopping, in preparation to travel to Tenser’s Castle on the shores of the Nyr Dyv, and hence to Baercan…

Mbebwe, the dakon arcanist-lich, spent several rounds harrying the party, drawing them in close to himself, then casting an electricity-based Fireball at ground zero and using his Dimensional Slide ability to escape. Eventually Alexia and Meroln caught up to him and slew him, but not before many of the group were nearly dead. A search of his lair revealed an extensive wizard’s lab, and a small fortune in artwork and assorted crafts. They also recovered the Staff of Vogon they’d been sent to recover, even though it was now completely non-magical.

A small shaft was found under one of the chests in his sanctum, and the party used a potion of fly they’d recovered from Mbebwe to send Justinian down to look for his phylactery. After a brief fight with a couple of dire-rats, Justinian returned triumphant, clutching an ancient ring that a dakon might have worn. Squizzle’s Legend Lore revealed that the most certain way of destroying the phylactery was to convince a good dragon to eat it; but as dragons of any alignment in short supply, they decided to put it in a Bag of Holding and take it back to the Temple of Vogon.

After making their way back out of Mbebwe’s tower, the group elected to cut south-west through the jungle, as they still needed to capture a girallon for their third task. After four days of bushwhacking their way through the undergrowth, Meroln finally found some tracks. Early the following day, the quartet of girallon’s they’d been trailing ambushed the party, and in short order nearly killed Alexia, Elerra, and Sam. Elerra did manage to put one of the apes asleep with her poison, and Meroln, Squizzles and Wilfred (Mekkatorque) managed to deal with the other three.

Realizing that nearly 10 of their 14 days had passed, the group pushed to make it back to Ikelan before their spelljammer was due to leave. Arriving the morning of the 17th, Wilfred flew on ahead to reassure Captain Hofketter that they had returned. The group did note, however, that the area around the city gates looked to have been involved in a battle recently, and more signs of destruction were seen along the path to the Temple of Vogon.

The guards at the temple doors greeted the party, and summoned the young acolyte, Wallah, to guide them to see Dar’bon, the new High Priest of the temple. Wallah, whose left arm was missing below the elbow, explained that the day after they had departed to complete their tasks, the rival group had returned and assaulted the temple, killing (and decapitating) Asada, as well as several other guards and acolytes.

Dar’bon proved to be a much younger man than Asada had been, and he regretfully informed the party that while he appreciated that they had successfully completed their tasks, that he could no longer fulfill his end of Asada’s bargain, as the rival group had stolen the Jade Frog and escaped the city with it. Beyond stating that they had fled south, there was not much more information he could offer them.

After a brief debate, Wilfred (who had since rejoined the group) was sent back to the ship, asking that the Captain bear a message to Galen nforming him that their quest had hit a snag and that they would make their own way back to Greyhawk. The party then rode their mounts south, crossing the Kabrevo Plain and then cutting south-west through the Adaro Forest as their tracking crystal told them that their quarry was heading in that direction.

Eventually they came to a small fishing village called Glusdo, where they traded three girallon pelts for the largest fishing boat in town (which was just large enough for the group, sans mounts). Crossing the Hambu Channel, they climbed the cliffs of the Isle of Singing Stones and traversed it as well, encountering nothing but a massive, silver tower with a rotating top that vanished when they finally got within 200’ of it. When they finally ran out of island, the crystal was still pointing south by south-west; an ocean journey seemed immanent. As Luna would be full in only 2 more days, the party elected to return to Greyhawk and lay their troubles at Galen’s feet, to see if he could help.

On returning to Greyhawk and the Green Dragon Inn, the group quickly spotted the ‘Ugly dude’ from their first mission waiting and watching from a table near the back, though they ignored him for the moment. Galen heard their story, gave it some thought, and told them that he would arrange for their rooms for the evening, and that in the morning he hoped to have a solution to their dilemma…

The two groups fought (briefly) under the moons, most eventually falling leaving only two prisoners. A closer examination revealed their opponents to have been yuan-ti. The debate raged on what to do with these prisoners. Sam tried to poison the prisoners, sparking the ire of Justinian and Alexia, Elerra asked Alexia to pray on the matter overnight. [Spent a Hero Point]

Overnight, she received a vision from Murlynd depicting the Fall of Ichamamna. She witnessed how some of the citizens of Ichamamna turned from the worship of the city’s gods and embraced Camazotz, the Olman bat-god. Under his tutelage they learned the Ritual of the Profane Feast, and turned the majority of the citizens into yuan-ti in a single night at the Festival of Flowers. The vision ended with the sight of two nooses hanging from the branches of a nearby tree.

The following morning, Alexia related her dream to the others, and their prisoners were executed.

The group spent the next several days slowly working their way along the slowly deteriorating road towards Ichamamna, avoiding further tangles with the patrols of yuan-ti. Eventually the jungle opened up around them, revealing the city and what they were reasonably sure was the tower of Mbebwe.

Entering through a hole in the southern wall of the ruined tower, Justinian failed his save against the symbol that guarded the entrance, causing all of the laces and buckles supporting his gear to let loose and drop his sword, boots, and pants to fall to the floor. As they worked their way through the chambers on the first level, Sam repeatedly took it on the chin, unleashing a pair of Black Skeletons, various magical traps, and a few physical ones, before the party decided enough was enough and had Wilfred summon an auroch to smash down one of the walls.

Taking the central spiral staircase down into the dungeons beneath the tower, they found themselves at the lowest level of a three-tiered killing field. When Sam (again) came under fire from something on the other side of the first wall (which was perforated with hundreds of tiny holes about 3-4 feet off the floor). Justinian tried flying over the first wall, only to impact on the Wall of Force that protected against exactly such a maneuver.

Wilfred, wanting to take the fight to their unseen attacker, spent a Hero Point to gain access to a Dimension Door, which he used to transport himself and Mekkatorque to the far side of the wall, where he found himself face to face with Mbebwe, the dakon m’chawi lich. Mekkatorque promptly failed his save against the lich’s fear aura.

Elerra spent one of her Hero Points to find an exit in the Wall of Force, which she then illuminated with Faerie Fire, allowing the rest of the party access to the lich’s sanctum beyond the wall. As we broke for the evening, the party was climbing the walls and preparing to come face to face with a creature millennia old…

As the ship sailed into the harbor, the party took in the sights in the harbor. Hundreds of fishing boats, and the only other foreign vessel in port was flying the colors of the Lordship of the Isles. The city itself was constructed mainly of white (or whitewashed) stone, and was surprisingly clean and modern-looking. The group recognized immediately that they were in a foreign land, as there was almost none of the racial diversity they were familiar with in the north; every human face they saw was of Touv descent, with a few wemics present. They also took note of the heat; nearly 95 degrees in the early morning, and likely due to grow warmer as the day progressed. The group girded themselves with spells and potions to protect themselves, then set off into the city. Hofketter, the captain of the ‘Thunder of Iron’, told the group that he would wait for their return until the 18th, at which time his ship would lift, with or without them.

Following their guidance crystal, they soon come to the steps of the main Temple of Vogan in the city. The guards at the top asked them their business before passing them to a young female acolyte named Wallah, who in turn bade them wait in an audience chamber for Asada, the High Priest.

Squizzles detailed the nature of their quest, and Asada seemed somewhat bemused, explaining that they were the second group in as many days to come seeking the “Most Holy Relic” of his temple. He described this group as best he could, saying that there was an elf, a dwarf, a winged horror, a pair of individuals wearing armor similar to Meroln’s, one of whom had translucent symbols circling his head, a brutish priest with small tusks, a tall drow in robes, and finally, a weird, largish dog with spikes growing out of it’s fur.

He then stated that he had offered the Frog to them, on the condition that they complete three quests; he went on to offer Squizzles and his companions the same deal, naming three different quests, namely the clearing out of a nest of kamadans that had been plaguing traffic on the road to Ichamamna, the recovery of a powerful sacred staff from a vile mchawi (wizard) named Mbebwe, who was said to live in a ruined tower on the outskirts of Ichamamna, and finally the recovery of a live, adult gorillion, which he said his temple planned to train for combat in the arena. Gorillions, it was said, lived in the Zolteo, through which they would have to travel to reach Ichamamna.

Two days out of Ikelan, as the group entered the Zolteo, they encountered a group of dead Touv, their bodies showing signs of snakebite, teeth, and claws. They found tracks leading into the jungle, and sent Justinian up into the canopy where the tracks ended. Soon enough, a pack of kamadans leapt down from the trees and attacked. Though hard pressed, Meroln finally demonstrated that gravity could indeed be a powerful ally; and that when he could manage to score a critical hit, it really, really meant something. Five of the six kamadans were slain, the sixth having been set aflame by Elerra and having fled into the jungle.

A further survey of the trees after the battle revealed a nest in the crook of some branches about 90’ up, and five kittens were found. After a brief discussion Elerra incinerated the kittens in their nest, and the party moved on.

The following day, another dead group of Touv were found along the road, but these had clearly been slain by humanoid foes, as their bodies were stripped and they’d been nailed to trees beside the road. Later in the day Elerra spotted a man with reddish-brown skin trailing the party from the opposite side of the river. Wilfred overflew the man’s location on Mekkatorque’s back, revealing several more of his companions, and discovering that they were armed with longbows, which they promptly unleashed in his direction. One of the others also fired an arrow with Deeper Darkness on it along Wilfred’s flight path, temporarily blinding him. But the width of the river mostly prevented any reasonable exchange of combat, so the two groups settled (for awhile) into the followers and the followed.

Finally, Elerra had had enough. Walking to the edge of the river, she shouted at the men trailing the party, and one of the arrows they unleashed in her direction found it’s mark in her thigh. She argued strongly after that point that the group should ambush the others before they ambushed them, and as night fell, both groups retreated into the jungle on opposite sides of the river to make their plans.

Ultimately, the party went south, the natives went north, and both sides began crossing the river to ambush the other. The party spotted the natives crossing, however, and turned back to meet them at their own abandoned campsite. As we broke for the evening, the two groups were primed to meet under the twin crescent moons, to shed one another’s blood in the dark…

It is now the 7th of Harvester, 599 CY.
XP: 1571
(does my failure to have to repeat typing this 3 times show?)

Soon enough, the party smashed their ambushers, taking only three prisoners. Amongst their effects, the party found a wanted poster with a decent sketch of Sam, offering a 4k gp reward for him alive (1k for his corpse), said reward being offered by an entity identified by Squizzles as the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra.

Questioning the prisoners revealed that the reward was only half their reason for the ambush, the other being a desire to take one of the Frogs from them (assuming that had been their errand). The cleric’s holy symbol (a disfigured golden medallion that might have once held a device resembling a frog) led the group to strongly suspect that he, at least, was a member of the Blessed Children of Anura. The cavalier’s saddlebags were found to contain a standard that several recognized as belonging to a band of mercenaries calling themselves the Black Rook Company.

Alexia wanted to turn their prisoners over to the authorities, so they marched them to Womtham and did so. Balking at a long march/sail back to Greyhawk, they settled in for the 25th, when they would be able to once again use their invocation to teleport to the city instead. While in Womtham, the group did the usual array of shopping and researching.

Alexis met a strange fellow who maintained a clockwork-smithy outside the city limits named Abrigat, who was working on a clockwork dragon for Lord Marthos of Rel Mord. Abrigat confided in Alexis that Lord Marthos had assured him that very soon, a wealth of innovation in the field of clockwork engineering would “be writ among the heavens” and that the field would never be the same (this being the reason that his clockwork dragon was mostly frame and boiler at the moment).

He also discussed the amazing clockwork man, Progilius, who had recently vanished from Rel Mord along with a band of hobgoblins (who had previously served with distinction on the City Watch). The two spent most of the day together, talking shop.

On the 25th, the group gathered outside of Womtham and cast their invocation, returning them to Greyhawk City.

On entering the Green Dragon Inn, several members of the party spotted the ugly guy from their first errand’s fight drinking alone near the back of the room. Elerra decided to keep an eye on him while the rest of the group met with Galen and brought him up to date on their mission.

While Elerra kept watch, “the ugly guy” was joined at his table by a woman, who sat and spoke with him for some time.

Meanwhile, Galen thanked the party for another successful mission, and paid them the balance owed to them. They went on to tell him about the ambush and the lurker in the bar, but he did not seem overly concerned. When asked about the progress on the Frogs, he said that only two remained beyond his reach, and offered the group 5000gp to recover the nearer of the two, known to be within the city of Ikelan on the continent of Hepmonaland. He further agreed to arrange for a spelljammer to transport them there and back, as the sea lanes in that region were controlled by the Scarlet Brotherhood. He asked the group to return the next day, when he would have some additional assistance to lend them.

Upon joining Elerra at her table, the woman who had been speaking with “the ugly guy” rose and made her way out of the bar; Sam trailing her and Squizzles training a second woman who appeared to be trailing her as well. Elerra went and sat down with “the ugly guy”, who traded banter with her for awhile, talking about a recent battle in the swamp near his temple, involving a bunch of hobgoblins who had appropriated a tower, enslaved some lizard-folk and used them to force a local circle of druids to force-grow them some trees. He further told the tale of how a group of adventurers riding hippogriffs, had rallied the lizard-folk and attacked the tower, but the hobgoblins had managed to escape in a strange spelljammer they’d built from the wood they’d forced the druids to grow.

Elerra finally rejoined her companions around the time that Sam and Squizzles returned, having lost the women they were following.

The following morning Galen informed the party that he had booked them passage aboard the ‘Thunder of Iron’, and gave Alexis charge over a floating crystal sphere containing a wizened creature resembling an imp; he explained that while within 30’ of it, they would be able to freely converse with the denizens of Hepmonaland. He also provided a 7" long crystal he said would guide them to the Frog.

The next morning, the group boarded the ‘Thunder of Iron’, a Hammership crewed almost entirely by Giff, with the exception of two human wizards who operated the helm. The main axis of the ‘Thunder’ held a massive bombard, which the Giff agreed to demonstrate once they’d cleared the “bubble” (as they called it) that dominated the Flanaess and rendered gunpowder unreliable. Said “demonstration” deafened nearly everyone, and threw many to the deck. The next day, the ‘Thunder’ put down in the seas a few miles from the bay on which Ikelan sat in the coast, and began sailing into the harbor…

As the party began making arrangements to travel west, Meroln received a Sending from Tenser, requesting that the group meet with him at his castle before setting out for High Mardreth. Upon arriving there two days later, Tenser informed them that he had been invited to a Wizard’s Conclave in Womtham, and offered the group the opportunity to travel there via a Teleport Circle, understanding that their mission for Galen was time-critical.

Once in Womtham, the group quickly exited the Lucent Tower of Wizardry and entered the city to purchase supplies for the rest of their journey,. After another 4 days of travel, the party arrived at Gul Shaledep, and sought Nethin‘s Armory in the tall-town outside the city. Some of the party spotted a pair of dwarves following them through the marketplace that preceded Nethin’s place, and Elerra, Squizzles, and Sam went back to try and confront one of their tails.

The dwarf, who never identified himself, seemed moderately hostile to the group, and gave the distinct impression that he was with the city guard or some similar security force. The dwarf questioned the presence in his city of a drow, a kobold and an illithid, and vowed that their presence would be carefully watched until they left.

Meanwhile Wilfred went in to ask Nevin about his sword, Bloodweaver. Other than details Wilfred already knew, Nevin would only say that the sword had been forged to slay a dragon, but that the hero it had been made for had failed in his quest. Bathing the weapon in “the heart-blood of a red dragon” would probably awaken it’s inner worth, and that perhaps the blood of another kind of dragon might work just as well; Nethin could not say for certain.

The only other moment of interest was when Alexis identified the bas-relief over the gates to the city proper as being in fact a pair of colossal stone golems shaped like angry dwarves.

After leaving Gul Shaledep, and making their way up into the mountains, the party soon ran across a troop of orcs, who initially seemed disposed to avoid the group, but Sam insisted on drawing their attention, a circumstance which required Squizzles to defuse; t seemed the orcs were concerned that the “illithid and the drow” were recruiting, a situation the orcs had no interest in being a part of.

Soon after, Justinian returned from scouting ahead, and said that he’d found the matriarch’s village. Following his directions, the party made their way up a narrow switch-back trail loaded with ambush points until at last coming to the village they sought. The party took note that there were few hill giants in evidence, mainly adolescent males. Orcs abounded, obviously subservient to the hill giants. Signs of past troubles were also to be found, five of the original long houses had been burned down, leaving only one remaining.

Eventually, Elerra and Squizzles divested themselves of their weapons and entered the longhouse to deliver the scroll to Yorglak, the matriarch. As she read the scroll, both detected a faint luminescence radiating from the parchment, and both also noted that her demeanor changed slightly after having read it; but upon her pronouncement that her servants had been told that they were free to leave, the whole party was only too glad to beat a hasty retreat from the village.

Four days later, on the road to Womtham, Justinian again returned from his wanderings to alert the party to an ambush being planned along the road ahead. The party made plans of their own, and sprang their counter-attack. Deeper darkness plunged the southern side of the road into darkness, while the northern side was Entangled. Despite this, the leading edge of the group was soon charged by a cavalier (Dallas) and an anti-paladin (Xanax), while a sorcerer (Gareth) and a ranger (Lasko) provided ranged support. Eventually Justinian engaged the Tactician (Zobek) who, in one of the trees, had been directing the combat and eventually covered himself in Oil of Daylight when Elerra moved her Deeper darkness to cover his location. Charbo, their cleric, had only just exited the wall of swirling mist she’d raised earlier, and was moving towards the injured members of her party.

As we broke for the evening, Dallas lay dying, Xanax was nearing his end, Zobek hung from the straps holding him in his tree (courtesy of a failed sleep poison check), and Sam was near death from multiple wounds, as the ambushers had been focused on him for several rounds…

The party quickly eliminates Rafael, Kalmad, and Muldar, causing Farrad and Anton to flee the room. At some point when nobody had their eye on him, Squizzles vanished, ending his chant (though the effects did linger for a time). Anton is eventually run down and captured, leaving Farrad to eventually be cornered by Wilfred, who had heard him demanding help from a strange creature covered in black scales and wearing only a breech-clout. This creature refused Farrad’s demand, and stood by impassively as Wilfred and Farrad exchanged blows, ultimately resulting in Farrad’s death. After the battle concluded, Squizzles reappeared in the space he’d been before, telling a strange tale of having been summoned away to defend a weird-looking golden blob against an encroaching horde of violet insect-things aboard some strange flying vessel.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the creature who identified itself as Klusk, servant of Arquen, offered the group no resistance as they searched the thieves den, recovering both the Frog and the Reliquary they sought. Eventually Klusk was released, and he departed in one of the boats stored in the cave below. Perhaps an hour after Klusk’s departure, the party found a letter from Arquen, promising Muldar sponsorship in something called the Path if he could steal the Frog and then overcome the party.

Returning to Barkhoury later that day, the group separated to sell the goods and treasure they’d recovered from the lair, selling almost everything except a small wooden case containing 4-1 ounce vials of a dry red powder identified as ligablood (a universal enchanting component). A small crest on the bottom of the box identified it’s origin as someplace called Delvenbrass.

The party, having completed their task for the constabulary, was welcome to remain in Barkhoury for as long as they wished, but when Luna became full on the 25th, they elected to use their incantation to return to Greyhawk.

After bribing their way past the night guards at the gate, they rode directly to the Green Dragon Inn and were pleased to find Galen waiting for them. He paid them the balance he owed them for their labors, and then, rather than send them off after another Frog, asked if they would be interested in another mission, this one to deliver a message to a hill giant matriarch somewhere above the Flinty Hills north of Nyrond.

The party agreed to the terms, then split up on various shopping expeditions. Wilfred, Elerra, and Meroln stopping at the Grey College to see if any of the learned sages there knew anything about the Path. Dal Vantak, a gnomish sage held to be an expert in magical societies, knew nothing of the Path, but he did bring in another sage, Lumal Kendar, who was an expert in languages. He felt strongly that the writer of the letter, because of his style of penmanship and his unusual last name, might be from a nation he referred to as Sa’han, said to lie far beyond the mountains that separated the Bakluni Basin from the Celestial lands of the Far West.

Wilfred also asked about his sword, Bloodweaver, but was told that he might have better luck in the dwarven city of Gul Shaledep (which, conveniently enough, was also located in the Flinty Hills). Nethin Hammertoe was said to be the finest sword-smith of the age, and one who also took a keen interest in the history of swords in general.

As we broke for the evening, the party was beginning their preparations to sail north along the Selintarn to the Nyr Dyv, and hence to the port of High Mardreth in the County of Urnst. From there, they could travel by roads to Nyrond, and into the Flinty Hills.

We left our companions asleep in the Golden Voyage, an inn just off the Street of the Jugglers in Barkhoury. At perhaps two hours before dawn, Elerra was awakened by someone (or something) standing on her chest and demanding that she awaken. The someone introduced themselves as Justinian, repeated his demand that she get out of bed and awaken her companions, as he explained breathlessly “They’re almost here!” Questioning the atomie further as she got out of bed, she learned that “a bunch of orcs” were coming, that “they think you did it” and that she and her companions had been followed by the small fey because they were "going to be heroes! " and that he, too, wanted to be a hero “again”.

As she was awakening Alexia and Wilfred, the sound of marching feet could be plainly heard in the street outside. Looking out her window, Elerra could plainly see four orcs in the tabards of the city watch gazing back up at their windows, while others could be heard making their way across the common room below. Elerra cast her Deeper Darkness at the orcs on the street below, blinding them, and then she and Justinian made their way out the window and across the street to hide in an alley. The orcs suddenly blinded, began blowing a whistle.

At the sounding of the whistles, the orcs who had been pounding on the doors of the others kicked them in. Wilfred, who had used a potion of invisibility had Mekkatorque, his eidolon, opening the window as this happened, and the orc who stood there ordered Mekkatorque to stop (which didn’t stop Wilfred from exiting the room, via the now open window). The rest of the party, in various stages of undress, surrendered to the orcs and were taken into custody.

As the party was marched off to the jail, Elerra and Wilfred crouched in an alley across the street from their inn, discussing what to do next. Justinian insisted that they needed to stage a rescue “because that’s what heroes do!” A variety of plots were hatched as to how they could get to the jail without being spotted on the streets, plans which were complicated by the fact that when Wilfred’s eidolon got too far away from him, it vanished, spurring the orc guards to summon more orc guards, who were sweeping the streets back towards the inn searching for the missing members of the party. Elerra sent Justinian off to see where the guards were taking the party, eventually leaving the alley as the orcs got closer to their hideout.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group are led to the jail, and informed that they have been accused of burglary, and possibly murder, should the Priestess Yulana prove not be raisable. The constable informed them that the Temple of Geshtai they had visited the previous day had been robbed earlier that night, the Frog statue they’d asked about stolen (along with other items), and the Priestess Yulana murdered. Another priestess was currently attempting to raise her, and if that attempt failed, then the party would be held guilty of her murder, as well. It was claimed that an acolyte had identified the group as the thieves. The group was then taken downstairs and locked in separate 10×10 cells.

Outside, after having used Suggestion on an early-rising merchant into smuggling them closer to the jail, they reconnect with Justinian, and eventually decide to send him inside to scout the best route to the cells of their companions. Justinian becomes invisible and flies off to the jail, only to emerge a minute later dueling an equally tiny, wispy humanoid form wielding a falchion. Seeing as Justinian was leading the fight towards them anyway, Elerra finally decides that it would be easier to surrender and walks out into the courtyard just as a grossly overweight man emerges from the jail and nails Justinian with a Hold spell. Wilfred also decides that surrender is in his best interest, and the two of them, Elerra carrying Justinian, are processed in the jail and placed in cells near their companions (Justinian is taken and given a cell of his own).

After two hours of incarceration, the group as a whole is taken from their cells to a conference room on the third floor, and informed that Yulana was successfully raised from the dead, and that she exonerated the group. The constable, the Honored Kalishek dar-Tahan introduces himself, offers apologies to the group for their arrest, then begs their assistance in bringing the true thieves to justice.

He explains that Yulana indicated that the notorious Muldar abn-Tul, a water sha’ir with a grim reputation, was the true thief, and that he and his band of fellow miscreants have no doubt retreated to their island hideaway, known as the Grim Spire. The Grim Spire was described as a bleak rock outcropping that rose 150’ out of the sea, whose interior works were only accessible twice a day, at low tide. Kalishek offered to transport the party to the Grim Spire, along with 40 of his Uruzary (orcish militia) to deal with the army of thieves Muldar was known to keep on hand to guard his hideout. After Squizzles haggled with him over terms, he agreed to send along a high level priest to buff the Uruzary, so that they would be better able to deal with the thieves.

Discussion then turned to the Uruzary themselves; Kalishek revealed that in ages past, orcs had controlled the entire Bakluni Basin, ruling it as an empire, with humans as slaves. But the humans had allied with the jann, risen up and overthrown the orcs, until today orcs roam “free” only in the tiniest portion of their former lands, farmed for soldiers, soldiers that were gelded like cattle before being sold. Rather than shame, he explained, the Uruzary had incredible morale, and viewed being selected for this duty as the highest of honor.

The group was turned loose in town for several hours. At 2000, they set sail aboard a pair of galleys, and at 0100, they and the Uruzary stormed the Grim Spire. After about 20 minutes of overcoming the thieves, the party finally reached the final stronghold of Muldar and his lieutenants. Sam led the charge into the room, followed by Elerra, who cloaked most of the room in deeper darkness, which shut down most of Muldar’s associates.

As the party takes out Muldar’s rogue and spellthief, Elerra drops her darkness, revealing the positions of Muldar and his followers, one of whom is scrambling back to Farrad, the Priest of Ben-hadar, for healing. This is where we broke for the evening.

After some discussion, it was decided that since the Tome of the Black Hand did not specify that the ulna, hair or blood all needed to come from the same creature, that they could very likely harvest an ulna from one of the dead goblins upstairs, trim some horse hair from one of their mounts, and Alexis volunteered to donate the blood that would be needed. After gathering the materials, and waiting an additional time to allow the effects of the Symbol of Pain to fade,

Using the Tome as their guide, they activated the symbols on the menhirs and opened the gate. On the far side they found a larger circular room than the one they had just left, almost 50’ in diameter, with a ceiling perhaps 40’ high, overlooking three floors of display cases and alcoves. In the center of the main floor was a circular metal dais of some kind, where a bubble of some translucent purple energy held a spectral undead creature at bay.

On the far side of the chamber stood a cluster of five creatures, near a conveyor belt that stretched through another gate of some type that had obviously been wedged into place. strange cables snaked between all of these devices, and the entire scene was dimly lit by the strange flickering illumination they provided. Beyond the gate, the conveyor belt crossed some unknown gulf before disappearing into the hold of some strange vessel.

Elerra identified four of the creatures as probably being githyanki, while Wilfred identified the largest one as an ethereal, a type of inter-dimensional merchant (and added that most of the strange magi-tech devices in the room were of their manufacture). A brief verbal exchange where Elerra pointed out that the ethereal and his group were outnumbered, the ethereal released the undead darnoc caught in the prison bubble and combat ensued.

While Eodain and his companions moved to fight the darnoc, Meroln charged one of the githyanki. The githyanki and the ethereal quickly surrounded Meroln, and he fell beneath their attacks.Before the githyanki could press their new advantage, however, the ethereal was killed, after which they all fled the chamber, knowing that the gate holding open their access to this tiny demi-plane would soon be collapsing. Only the soul-knife who had felled Meroln failed to escape, losing his head as the conveyor belt carried his body to the closing gate. Meroln was revived as the party turned to the Eyes of Domm to see how they fared.

Eodain and his group finished off the darnoc at the same time, leaving the two groups to pick over the leavings of the githyanki. Several objects proved to be magical, but the Eyes of Domm were interested only in the Emerald Frog, which was in the second crate the group pried open. other loot left behind by the githyanki included an odd spellbook that contained only the spell Fireball and then a guide to a pair of feats tailored directly to the casting of that or a similar spell (Cometstrike and Implosion), a guide to the construction of several low-level clockwork devices, The fourth item was a large leathery scroll, nearly the size of a small tapestry, that gave instructions for an Invocation that would allow up to 12 casters to cast a Teleport Circle on any night when one of the moons were full.

After more discussion, it was decided that Squizzles and Varian would return to Rel Mord, to consult with the Eyes’ superiors there. After three days of travel, the pair arrived in the city, walking the last mile so as not to overfly the city with the dragon. Once they reached the Temple of Boccob, Squizzles plead his case before Sargil, the high priest, shamelessly dropping Tenser’s name and deftly failing to mention Galen’s. Sargil, bemused yet impressed by the kobold bard’s command of the common tongue, bade Squizzles to stay the night, while he checked on his story. The next morning, Sargil, having checked Squizzles story, told Varian to transport Squizzles back to his group, and to allow them, this time, to collect the Frog and give it to Tenser.

With Squizzles returned, the party made their way back to Nessermouth and made their way back to Hardby, though a storm made the return trip days longer than their previous one. Another day and a half saw them once more in Greyhawk City.

Arriving at the Green Dragon Inn, they were met by Galen, who accepted the Frog and paid them their fee. A further contract was offered, this time for a Lapis-lazuli Frog, involving a journey further than before; nearly 3000 miles (as the crow flies; significantly more traveling overland). It took months, but the group arrived in the city of Barkhoury on the 16th of Reaping.

Galen had indicated that the Frog in question could be found in the Temple of Geshtai in Barkhoury, but Barkhoury had three temples dedicated to the Rain Goddess. The second one that they visited, however, had a number of frog statues decorating the interior fountain. After discussing their options in the inner chambers, they asked for an audience with the High Priestess of the temple, Yulana dar-Alad, who listened to their tale, then bade them to return on the following day, when she should have a decision.

As we left the group, they had taken rooms at the Inn of the Golden Voyage, awaiting the dawn…

Once having signaled the Blackwater Dancer to return to shore and pick them up, the group boarded the barge and set sail once more for Greyhawk City. Several spells were cast in an attempt to discover the frog statue’s nature, but all that could be revealed was an aura of mild transmutation and the sense not merely that there was more to the statue than they could detect, but that the statue itself had a personality.

After about a half day’s sailing south on the Nyr Dyv, Elerra (who was carrying the party’s prize) began hearing a voice in her head, a voice that offered magical knowledge and power. While tempted to keep this to herself, she soon decided to inform the others about this development. It was decided that it might be best to purchase a lead-lined box to keep the frog in, to block it’s telepathic contact, lest it possibly possess her, but there were none to be had on the river.

On arriving in Greyhawk, the group repaired to the shrine of Ellistrae that Elerra frequented, hopefully to learn more about it’s properties. Kiamyr Loroth, the priestess who maintained the shrine could do little but confirm that lead would block the frog’s communication, but did add that the statue was intensely evil, and that contact with it should be severely curtailed. The group also asked what, if anything she knew of their patron, Galen, but she knew only that he served what she called a False God, named Mabelrode.

Eventually the party made their way to the Green Dragon Inn, but according to Jenny, Galen was “out”, and might be away for several days. Drawing the party into one of the private back rooms, she told them that should they choose to do so, they could seek out Galen’s partner, whom she identified in hushed tones as Tenser the Archmage. After she left, the party debated doing this, but Meroln argued strongly for only turning the item over to Galen himself.

Elerra and Wilfred got private rooms at the Inn, with Squizzles and Meroln taking the last available room for themselves (Sam having already paid his private room days in advance). Alexis chose to bed down in a nearby inn, rather than ride 15 miles to her family’s estate outside the city. Elerra snuck out of her room to return to the shrine for more instruction, leaving Wilfred a message that she’d left the Frog in her room. Ultimately, Squizzles took possession of the Frog, but he did not stay in close enough contact with it for it to bind with him.

The next morning, during breakfast, one of the innkeeper’s sons informed the group that Galen had returned, and would meet with them in the meeting room in a half hour’s time. Before the meeting, Elerra, who had returned to the inn in the wee hours of the morning, cast Detect Evil before going in to see Galen, to establish that he, himself was not evil (the spell indicating that he was not).

Galen accepted the Frog from the party, and answered some of their questions about the other parties they had encountered. According to Galen, the Mallets of Wastri fervently (if erroneously) believed that possession of all 10 Frogs would either bring their god Wastri to them, or somehow grant him additional power. The Blessed Children of Anura sought the Frogs to help free the Demon-Lord Anoor, while a third group, which the party had not yet encountered, called the Eyes of Domm, was a sect of Boccob worshipers whose goals involved the acquisition and sequestration of dangerous, powerful magic items (like the Frogs).

He further told them that should they encounter any of his brother priests of Mabelrode, that they were not aware of the project that he and Tenser were involved in, and that if encountered, they should be told nothing and avoided if possible. He went on to explain that where he came from, the paradigm was one of Law vs. Chaos, rather than Good vs. Evil, and that while Mabelrode was a god of Chaos, here in this world the majority of those humans who chose to serve him would be considered evil (in addition to being chaotic).

After paying the group for their completion of their task, he offered them a further contract for recovering another of the Frogs, this one cut from a single emerald. he gave it’s current location as within a ruined tower in the Gnatmarsh in Nyrond. because of the distance and travel times, he was offering the group 1500 gp each (half paid up front), and would contribute 1500 gp to the group as a whole for travel expenses. After the group agreed to these terms, he left them to make their arrangements.

The group quickly rejected traveling overland, and decided to take a barge south on the Selintarn to Hardby, and to then take a ship to Nessermouth, and travel up the Nesser to the marsh. Before departing the city, they consulted with a sage who identified the tower they sought as likely having belonged to a warlock named Randolph, who had terrorized the region before being cast down 40 years prior.

More time was spent purchasing supplies and crafting potions and items for the journey, and the party set out from Greyhawk on the 18th, arrived in Hardby the following day, and set sail aboard the merchant vessel Sahuagin Tart (a brigantine with a figurehead depicting a spectacularly well-endowed sahuagin, captained by Reesa Dajur) on the 21st.

After 4 days of smooth sailing, the Tart made port in Nessermouth. The party unloaded their horses and spent another four days traveling north along the Nesser before they reached the Muddy Boots Inn, the last bit of civilization at the confluence of the Nesser and the Duntide Rivers. The Muddy Boots was nearly full to capacity, as twenty soldiers in the service of the Count of Brackenmoor were there blowing off steam. Their commander, Sir Guye of Larmont, spoke with Meroln, asking if it was his groups intention to journey into the Gnatmarsh, and informing him that if that were so, that there was a 5 sp bounty on goblin ears.

Sir Guye also told him that his father had been among those who had besieged Randolph’s tower, and that the “goblin problem” in the ’marsh stemmed from those times. Even with Randolph dead and gone, goblins still patrolled the marsh wearing his device, a black hand.

As the party made the transition into the marsh itself, Elerra and Sam both spotted a armored man riding a “small” blue dragon in the skies over the marsh. As the day wore on, he was spotted several more times, and we was wearing a tabard that Alexis recognized as belonging to the Eyes of Domm.

On their second day in the marsh, the party encountered a pile of 40 or so (ear-less) goblin corpses, slain perhaps hours before. Most of these corpses bore a tattoo of a black hand somewhere on their bodies. A search of the area revealed no tracks, but a nice leather saddle with it’s cinch cut was found several yards away. Late that afternoon, after several more sightings of the dragon-rider, the group came to the Tower of Randolph, and came face to face with three more followers of the Eyes of Domm, who introduced themselves as Gampstel, Eodain, and Elaine. After a brief bit of diplomacy, the two groups decided to ally themselves in exploring the tower, with the ultimate fate of the Frog both groups sought to be determined later.

Sam defeated the mundane traps on the outer door of the tower, and successfully saved vs. the Symbol of Pain that also guarded the door. Once unlocked and unstuck (thanks to Meroln, Gampstel, and Alexis), the strengthened group moved into the tower, electing to explore the upper works before the lower. In the main room at the base of the tower, they detected a magical candlestick holder, but nobody could read the word written on the base of it. Elerra pocketed it and the group moved on.

On the third floor of the tower, which had obviously been Randolph’s living quarters, Sam found that the scorched remains of the wardrobe there had a false floor. He blew his check for detecting the magical trap on the compartment (another Symbol of Pain) and then failed his save vs. the trap, leaving him writing in pain on the floor. Squizzles moved forward to snatch the contents of the compartment, but he, too, fell victim to the symbol inside, though he managed to pull out the leather-bound tome that rested within.

As the group investigated the final level of the tower’s upper works, someone finally broached the subject of the absent member of the Eyes of Domm (the one outside on dragon-back). Gampstel explained that Varian was keeping the area free of goblins. After sam located the trap (contact poison) on the ladder to the roof, Meroln climbed up, unbolted the trap door, and took a look around; Varian could, indeed, be seen perhaps a mile off, swooping down on what was likely a group of goblins. There being not much else to see, the group made their way to the basement levels.

The first basement proved to be a combination kitchen and pantry, but the level beneath that was bare except for a henge composed of an unknown dark stone (marble?) into which six magical symbols had been carved on the supports (three on each, repeated on both sides). The configuration detected as magical, and the symbols certainly were some sort of activation code, but their exact purpose was unclear.

Stymied by the stones, Eodain suggested that they consult the tome they’d located upstairs, which bore what they assumed was Randolph’s device, that of a black hand. The tome revealed itself to possess four sections, the first of which detailed the nature of bargaining with the Dark Powers for the ability to become a warlock. The next section was a copy of the exact bargain Randolph had struck with Asmodeus for his power (i.e. access to the abilities of a warlock and eternal youth, for the price of several dozen souls a year, contract void should Randolph be killed). The third section was a journal and accounting of every soul Randolph had pledged to Asmodeus (the longest section of the book by far). The final section dealt with the henge in the basement, detailing the construction of a special paintbrush (requiring an ulna and hair from a sentient creature) and the correct order in which to paint the symbols in fresh blood to activate the portal that led to a pocket dimension, where, it was hoped, Randolph had stored his greatest treasures (namely the Frog).

As we ended the evening, the group was arguing about how and where to acquire the ulna, hair and blood, most balking at performing a blood sacrifice….

The party, all of whom were in or near the City of Greyhawk, were invited to attend a meeting at the Green Dragon Inn at 7 PM. As each arrived, they were directed by the fair barmaid Jenny to a back room, which had been reserved for the use by an individual in ornate black and gold armor who called himself Galen. At no point in the interview did Galen raise his helm’s visor to reveal his face.

Galen told the group that he wished to hire them to help him recover a number of items, and that he had it on good authority that they were adequate to the task, as, he explained, he already knew that they would succeed. He then informed the group that as a young man, he had been cursed by an unknown power, and become “unstuck in time”, randomly being projected into the future and the past each day. While this was the first time they were meeting him, it was not his first time meeting with them.

The item he wanted them to recover was a Frog statue carved from a single topaz, about the size of the head of a mace. He further explained that he had arranged transport for the group to the island where he knew that the statue could be found, and that they would encounter “resistance” in recovering it, though he was decidedly vague as to the specifics.

Elerra was hesitant, as she had other business in the city, but Galen arranged for her to meet with her contact that evening and her protestations faded. Galen went on to explain that the frog statue was one of ten similar statues, each of which served as keys to the prison binding the Demon-Lord Anoor, of the 271st level of the Abyss. Alexis identified Anoor has a toad-headed elephantine being of enormous size, known to have vanished about 700 years prior.

Galen further warned that there were others who would be seeking the statue; one group being certain that the full set of statues would somehow bring their god to Liga, another who wished to use the statues to free the demon. He also mentioned a second group of servants in his employ, who would be searching out those statues that were located in the south along the coastlines of the Gearnat Sea, while they would be tasked with those found in the northern regions.

For the recovery of the statue, Galen offered the group 500 gp each, as well as any and all loot they recovered. He also would provide transport there and back. He paid them half in advance, and the group prepared to depart to purchase supplies and meet their appointments, Meroln was quite adamant that the group settle on how the spoils would be divided before they embarked on the journey, causing Wilfred to declare that they should form an official adventuring company, replete with tabards.

The following afternoon the party arrived at the docks, and boarded the Blackwater Dancer, a barge owned by Ketteth Lirman, a human male of obviously pure rhennee blood. After sailing up the Selintarn River to the lake itself, it was another 11 hours sailing until they reached the island they sought. Their mounts and gear were unloaded, a base-camp established, and the party set off on foot along a trail they had located that led into the nearby forest.

After 20 minutes or so of travel, the group came upon the scene of an ambush that Sam estimated had happened the previous evening. Eight bodies lay strewn about a clearing, one of whom whose chest bore an impression from where their holy symbol (Alexis identified the mark as probably being that of Wastri) had been driven into their flesh to leave a mark. All had already been stripped of all their possessions.

After another hour’s march, the party finally sighted the only building they’d seen thusfar, a tower that seemed to be only half complete, rather than in ruin. Perhaps twenty minutes further along, Sam detected the sound of at least two men griping at one another in Suloise, and returned to the party to plan their next move.

After a hurried conversation, half the party tried to hide among the trees, while Sam, Squizzles, and Alexis stood boldly on the path. As the other group approached, Elerra was certain that she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, but could not locate the source of her concern. As the two groups came together, the leader of the other party looked from Sam, to Squizzles, and finally to Alexis before informing them that they were blocking the path, and to please remove themselves so that he and his companions could continue on their journey.

For a moment, it seemed that Alexis and those standing in the road would comply, but Elerra cast a Prestidigitation spell, dropping a wooden replica of the frog statue on the head of the leader of the opposing group. This elicited an instant repsonse in the form of an arrow (which missed), but caused battle to erupt between the two sides.

The opposing party’s leader charged Sam and began hacking away, doing considerable damage. For a few rounds the enemy party targeted Sam exclusively, until Alexis revealed herself as a priestess, at which time the leader turned his attention on her. Elerra brought several of the opposing members down with her drow sleep poison, and once the witch and the vitalist on the other side identified their roles, Wilfred and his eidolon made quick work of them. With more than half of their party asleep or unconscious, the ugliest of the opposing force sought to flee, but was brought down by a Hideous Laughter spell cast by Squizzles while his leader fell to Sam and Meroln.

The sleeping members of the opposing force were tightly bound by Sam while Elerra interrogated the ugly guy. He claimed that his group had been sent to the island by the local High Priest of Wastri, Lemuel, who made his home in the Mistmarsh east of the City of Greyhawk. He further identified the victims of the ambush they’d located earlier as member of a sect known as the Blessed Children of Anura. While the party decided how to deal with their prisoners (Elerra was in favor of simply disposing of them, while Squizzles wanted to turn them in to the “authorities”), their ugly captive pleaded for clemency, further adding that he devoutly wished to not have his brain eaten by Sam.

As we ended for the night, Elerra jabbed the ugly captive with one of her poisoned quarrels, putting him to sleep, then convinced Meroln to untie the three slumbering prisoners. They soon returned to their camp, collected their mounts, and were riding back to their pickup point on the beach.

E3.5 to Pathfinder

Session 41 proved to be the last update I still had on file for the 2006 campaign, though I know from other emails concerning the campaign that it went on until at least April of 2008. Several faces would change over the course of the campaign, Kitiana would rejoin her companions, and ultimately a paladin from their own time would sacrifice himself on the eve of the spellweaver apocalypse to partially undo their experiment, hurling the moon forward in time over 50,000 years (to the 14th of Patchwall, 600 CY, to be exact).

After several days of waiting, the party’s contact among the mercenaries arranged a meeting between themselves and Ka’antos, the leader of the opposing group for the end of that week in a village a few miles outside of the city. Without a quibble, the group marched off to the meeting.

Ka’antos, obviously distrusting to luck, brought several of his own troops as well as a smattering of hired locals to the meeting. Much innuendo was traded, and an offer made for the services of Alianna (Ka’antos, it seemed, would welcome having both Alianna and Kitiana at his disposal) but as diplomacy was never their strong point, the party plunged into yet another melee.

Ka’antos was quickly felled, but revealed to be a succubus who seemed to have only been acting as a mouthpiece for the absent priest. Drago quickly faced himself off against the leader of the Black Rooks who had come along, Janos Tandover’s own younger brother, Thessar. Alianna Teleported herself, Aurelia, and T’riss out of harm’s way while Firax1s faced off against Od’astanos, the secondary priest at the meeting.

Drago fell victim to a Song of Discord, While Taz and Lassiter fought the Black Rook’s elite Frost and Fire squad. Local archers helped distract the party’s spell-casting forces and a dragon-kin warlock helped soften up the fighters on both sides indiscriminately. Just as it began to look like a TPK, a quick succession of lucky breaks turned things around as both Thessar and Od’astantos were felled, causing the local mercs to break and run, and provoked the surrender of the F&F squad.

One of the local constabulary had heard the fighting in the distance and come to investigate, and he took the F&F squad’s remaining troops into custody, leaving the group once again with more questions than answers, but with the satisfaction of knowing that they’d significantly weakened the other side…

We ended our last session with the group alighting on a small island in the middle of the ocean, their quarry lost, and unsure of where to go next. When dawn broke, their searches discovered a sheltered cove, a few stone huts, and a giant by the name of No-chad whom the group told their tale to, including the prophesy. No-chad could make nothing out of most of it, though he did recognize the Graf as a race of beings who had lived on an island chain in the eastern ocean over a millennium ago who had been wiped out by an unknown cataclysm (possibly of their own device).

The compelling thing about the Graf, however, was that according to legend, they held powers similar to both spellfire and the eldritch blasts of warlocks, though by all accounts they were not of an evil mien. The group then elected to backtrack several hundred miles, back over the mainland, to investigate the ruins that the Graf had left behind.

Lots of time passed, but eventually they came to the ruins they sought, white marble platforms and causeways that lay shattered on the ocean floor, and long abandoned buildings that contained faded murals. Only one mural was of any real interest, which depicted the Graf officiating at a ceremony (treaty signing?) between giants and dragons, with a mixed bag of humans and humanoids both known and unknown looking on. The most interesting figure on the mural was that of a spellweaver, who was obviously there to be a witness but whom even in the mural stood apart from all the other races gathered there.

Eventually the group felt their curiosity satiated, and after judicious use of a Contact Other Plane spell (for what it was worth, arcane magic seemed to work just fine, though divine magic seemed indistinct and deliberately buffered by some unknown force), they set out once again for the lands of the far west, where it was indicated that their friend Kitiana and her ‘companions’ had finally alighted.

Finally arriving in the city of Aragos-Kul, the group soon located a mercenary who understood their modern languages, thus giving himself away as a member of the other group. Unfazed by the threats of the party, he agreed to arrange a meeting between them and High Priest Ka’antos of Mabelrode, to discuss their mutual goals in the past…

We ended our last session with Kitiana preparing to take Alexander’s body home to his family. At the last moment, Elissa decided to accompany her, and the three of them passed through the portal out of the ship. The rest of the group exited the vast metal fortress (the coordinates of which Firax1s relayed to his own people for assessment) and were soon whisked back to the Pinnacles and Lady Aurelius’ palace. She almost immediately sent them off to their rooms, where each felt an immense lethargy overtake them, some before they even reached their beds.

The next ‘morning’ the group assembled for breakfast and were greeted by a quartet of strangers in the Lady’s company. Aurelius introduced them as Aurelia and Drago of the Earthmauler clan of the Wolf Nomads, Rin, an olven rogue from the Vesve, and Mordenkainen, “whom some of you may have heard of”. Taking over the conversation, Mordenkainen explained that nearly three weeks had passed since they had returned to the Pinnacles, as he had prevailed upon Aurelius to keep them bound in slumber until this very morning.

To the mix of shock and outrage of the existing members of the group, Mordenkainen explained that he had asked this boon of Aurelius so that the group’s ‘competitors’ would have ample time to advance their own plans; which apparently included the kidnapping of Kitiana sometime after her departure from their company. Several members of the group, on hearing this, demanded a chance to rescue her, and Mordenkainen simply smiled and bade them to do so… without his help. Their enemies, he explained, were already encamped mere hours away from the Celestial Arch, and their somewhat brute force approach to having it take them where they wanted to go would likely leave it as ‘broken’ as the prophesy predicted.

Instead, he offered them the use of another, albeit also damaged, gateway into the past. Tovag Baragu, he explained, had been damaged many years previously in a battle between Iuz and Vecna, but that at the precise moment of the sun touching the horizon today, the stones flanking the setting sun would lead anyone walking between them to the same point in space, only 50,250 years in the past. The Celestial Arch, he further explained, would be still functioning in that time, and would be unlikely to be guarded by any fanatics following Celestian.

Seeing this as their only hope of rescuing Kitiana, the group left the Pinnacles on a huge flying carpet provided by Mordenkainen, reached the stone circles with minutes to spare, and made their way into the past. Their own carpet was soon unfurled, and many hours later they arrived at the town of Gathmyre, a bustling outpost of the giants who oversaw the Archway in their own time.

The party, edging the way cautiously to the encampment, met first with a caravan of dwarves, who sang the praises of the giants and their wares; soon thereafter, using a variety of translating spells and pidgin dwarfish, made their desire to pass through the gate for reasons of travel made known to the Huchard, as the giants called themselves. None of those present had seen or heard of either Kitiana or her captors, though all knew of brewing trouble in the West, where the ‘little brothers’ (men) lived.

On the far side of the portal, the group took refuge in the city of Sharu’mosna, where they encountered more Huchard as well as their allies, the ubiquitous and vaguely subservient Sibbecai, a race of humanoids with the heads like those on a greyhound. Aurelia quickly became something of a sensation performing at the inn closest to the Arch, and two nights later, in the thick of a heavy thunderstorm, the Arch could be seen to fluoresce in deep violet hues and rang like a bell as it flashed with a light so bright that it blinded most of the party for several rounds.

Emerging from the gate came nearly forty horsemen on steeds of black iron, who, as quickly as they could, rose high into the sky. The group tried to give chase on their flying carpet (after webbing themselves into place) but quickly lost the trail. As we parted for another evening, they had alighted on a small island in the middle of a vast ocean…

As we ended for the evening, Kitiana had addressed a strange humanoid looking robot , who lurched in her direction and attempted to grapple her onto the nearby (operating) table. A fight ensued, in which the robot was gacked, and an odd looking creature was noticed floating in a nearby tank recessed in the wall.

The group fiddled with the controls for awhile, and eventually freed the creature, who turned out to be a half-black dragon warlock who had stumbled into the iron fortress nearly 60 years previous and been captured. He tagged along with the party for several hours, exploring empty rooms and helping to annihilate several dozen vegepygmies, but eventually parted ways to seek his own fortunes.

After locating some interesting bits of junk, the party wandered downstairs, got ambushed by some intellect devourers, then by ropers further downstairs, and eventually managed to confuse a trio of police ‘bots long enough to get them to tell them where the fire giant they sought could be found. A vicious battle ensued, as the giant and his entourage bashed up the group fairly well, managing to kill Alexander (again). Alexander’s spirit elected not to be resurrected, so as we parted for the evening, Kitiana was setting out with his ashes and his equipment for Port Toli, to return them to his family.

We left our band in the midst of introductions with Lady Aurelius, which devolved into a long RP session. Being as the Lady was a sage specializing in Draco/Giant history, she filled the group in on what she called The Fall of the Giants, wherein the so-called Firstborn of the Titans went from being a noble race of craftsmen and protectors to the fractured and fractious rival breeds that are known today. Mix in generous doses of treachery, both human and demonic, and a war of dominance with the Draconic Conclave, and she put many of the group’s questions to rest.

Throughout the course of this tale, Tahiri grew more and more tense, finally fleeing the library and barricading herself in her room. It was soon learned that the Princess of Athenia had been kidnapped as a child and held captive by dragon-kin for six years before being freed, and so much talk of draconic rule and whatnot was beginning to cause her quite a bit of discomfort. Probing her deeply with her mind, Aurelius also discovered to Tahiri’s great alarm that she was pregnant! Shocked and confused about how this was possible (she insisted that she was a virgin), the young Jedi finally calmed herself and sought answers from the Force.

While Lady Aurelius returned to her other guests, Tahiri spent several hours in a trance. Though the mechanism and the circumstances remained unclear, Tahiri eventually accepted that she was, in fact, pregnant. Moreover, she learned that the father of the child (a son) she was carrying was that of her companion, Taz! Moreover, she learned that this son had a strong destiny, both in the Force and in mundane affairs, as he would serve as the nexus for a new knighthood that would reunite the shattered precincts of the Great Kingdom and usher in a long period of peace and prosperity. The only caveat to this was that Taz could not know, for if he knew, he would forsake the path he currently walked, and the world would be the worse for it.

Returning to her companions, Tahiri announced that she would not be able to continue with them, as she had learned of a “family matter” that took precedence. She made her goodbyes, and, with the loan of a hippogriff from the Lady’s stables, departed. After this bit of drama, having baited her hook, Lady Aurelius began setting it. She told the others of a way in which they could safely activate and utilize that Celestine Arch they knew of in the Barrier Peaks, and would share this info… for a price. It seemed that one of the younger sons of the fire giants back in the Occupied Lands had discovered a strange metal door that led into a vast fortress that the Lady could neither scry into nor fit herself through, as something at the portal dispelled magic as it passed.

Various divinations she had performed, however, indicated that if the fire giant mastered the unknown magic that was held within the fortress, the giants would have the strength to expand their borders once again, bringing even more human lands under their dominion. So the party, with the addition of a certain sorcerer/cleric the Lady vouched for, entered the strange metal hallways beyond the door.

As we ended for the evening, Kitiana had addressed a strange humanoid looking robot , who lurched in her direction and attempted to grapple her onto the nearby (operating) table…

After spending the night fleeing the giants overland and through fields, the party returned to the roads shortly after dawn, rather than trying to hole up somewhere. Soon enough, though, another group of giants attacked, but this time with much more lethal success.

Taz spurred his mount to charge one of the armored mountain trolls, and while he did hurt it, it quickly smashed the life out of him. Alexander and Lassiter were both killed by a second troll, while Tahiri and Elissa accounted for the rest, one way or another.

At this point, the party decided that perhaps they should have heeded the warnings when they entered the Contested Lands, and Alianna teleported the group back to Thornwald. Maps were consulted, their companions raised, and the group then elected to attempt their trek into the Barrier peaks from the Ull side of the range.

As the group made their way west and then south into the Plains, Alianna re-experienced a vision that she’d had several months prior to that point. Taking it as a sign that they were somehow closer to the locale featured in the vision, Tahiri sought answers in the Force, and learned that the mist-shrouded pillars were north west of their current location. The group employed their flying carpet to sail over the sea, and when Alianna spotted a familiar grouping, the party set down amid the rolling lawns atop the chosen pillar.

As they approached the doors of the palace that sat in the center, they opened of their own accord and the group was soon met by the Lady Aurelius, which was where we ended for this week.

A few days after the incident in the field, the group encountered a turnstile in the road, and were informed by the guards manning it that they were entering the Occupied Lands, formerly known as the Duchy of Geoff. After each swearing that they understood where they were bound, the group was allowed to pass, and soon thereafter Elzedar broke away from the group to scout ahead for dangers on the road. The diminished party soon came to another turnstile, this one manned by ogres, an ettin, and a formorian.

Tahiri tried her mind tricks, which worked on the ogres but not on the formorian, who doubled her toll to pass for her trouble. As they traveled the trade roads towards the nearest village, the group found the pastoral scenery not so very different from other lands, if you ignored the ogre taskmasters walking among the human laborers in the fields. Tahiri tried passing gold coins to the workers as they passed, but was soon rebuked by one of the taskmasters who, after hearing her explanation of why she’d given away the money, gave her horse a coin so that IT could buy itself some extra food, as well. The concept that the giants viewed the humans as mere animals did not sit well with anyone, least of all Tahiri.

The oppression continued into the nearest town, where humans could clearly be seen doing only menial chores, except for the merchants staying at the one inn set aside for foreigners. After offending the merchants and the serfs alike with their foreign values, the group elected to continue on to yet the next town, where they arrived slightly after dark and took lodgings at a nearly identical inn as the one in the town before.

Shortly after midnight, the innkeeper awoke the group and told them that the local potentate, a fire giant, demanded their services (and it would be wise of them to grant his request). Towing the party sans horses out into the fields, he explained that a land-shark had been terrorizing his serfs and tearing up his fields; as obvious mercenaries, it was their job to kill it.

Stalking up to the mound of earth the group believed was the land-shark caused it to erupt instead into a formorian! From several other points around the field ogres also rose up and a general melee was joined. All through the battle the fire giant merely watched, though as the group slaughtered the last of their ambushers he lifted a horn to his lips and blew. Not wishing to face reinforcements, the group fled back to the inn, gathered their horses, and rode out into the night, knowing that now they would be hunted, as the fire giant’s only explanation for the ambush had been to explain that it was a test to gauge how much of a threat the group posed to the land…

The next day, Khelben invited Kitiana and her group to dinner, and after an excellent meal got down to his dissection of the poem/prophesy they’d placed before him. While his goddess had offered him no new insights, he did point out that in the distant past, a kingdom of giants had ruled a large portion of Toril, and that those giants had, in their writings, spoken of an even earlier ‘golden age’ in which all giants had been of one race, and had ruled an even greater empire.

The only truly new thought he interjected was that it was obvious from certain passages that others would be passing into the past as well, and that those others might have means of making the journey or knowledge that the party lacked. He also noted that there were magical arts how long lost that could flourish anew, if only someone brought the knowledge of them back with them.

The next day the group splintered, with Akono and Emerald, for separate reasons, deciding to remain behind on Toril. The remaining members were teleported to Baronia, and traveled the Celestial Road to the city of Shatura, in what was known as the Sunelan Empire, a land none members of the party except Firax1s had ever heard of. Alexander, of Suloise descent himself, was surprised to find that it claimed direct descent from the ancient Suel Imperium of old, and that it had escaped the Rain of Colorless Fire that had destroyed the Imperium’s heartlands so long ago.

After a few days of sightseeing and whatnot, Firax1s teleported the group back to Greyhawk City in clumps. Several more days were spent refitting and resupplying, but at last the group set out for the Barrier Peaks. Travel was uneventful in Veluna, but as they slept at an inn in the Lorridges one night, their horses (and only theirs) were slain in their stables. Kitiana, using a combination of spells, questioned the spirits of the dead horses, who knew only that they had been slain by oddly scented ‘not men’ who came from ‘over there’.

Several nights later, camping in a field in Bissel, the group was assaulted in the dark of night by six golden hued warriors dressed much like ninjas, who bore silenced stones on their persons and threw small bombs filled with sleep poison. As we broke for the evening, the group stood victorious over their foes, who one by one vanished like popping soap bubbles…

The group elected to stop at the ‘city’ of Tarsis before continuing north so that they might resupply and rest before their long journey. A day or so beyond Tarsis, they noticed a group shadowing them, and at nightfall, Elzedar crept back to investigate, and did not return.

Growing concerned, the rest of the group set out in search of him, finally encountering a small force of knights upon a hilltop, along with a single figure of gnome or halfling size. In parlay, the group learned that the knights served the gnome that the party had left naked and tied to a tree the previous year, who now sought to avenge the insult upon the party. After indicating the direction in which Elzedar might be found, the group rode off, leaving the party to finds their friend.

Soon thereafter, the group spotted the remains of an ancient trebuchet silhouetted against the stars, and saw Elzedar tied by his hands to the arm of it, and by his feet to a stake in the ground. As Kitiana approached him to release him, she set off a tripwire that sent him flying into the sky, to land nearly 400 yards away with a mighty thump. Kitiana apologized profusely, healed his wounds, and the group returned to their camp for an uneasy night.

No further attacks befell the group, though while passing through the city of Solanthus Taz’s ax ‘woke up’ and began speaking to him telepathically in a rapid succession of voices; it was apparently both intelligent and slightly schizophrenic. Upon reaching Palanthus once more, the ax began to share it’s opinions vocally with Alex and Akono while Alex shopped for an engagement ring for Kitiana, and Alex wound up purchasing an entire collection of jewelry because of it.

Returning to the inn, Akono took Kitiana aside and explained that the jewelry was from Taz, and when she took Taz aside to discuss matters, Alex and Akono got into a heated argument about what was going on which allowed Alex to proclaim his true feelings at full volume just as Kitiana was descending the stairs. In the end, True Love™ won out and Kitiana accepted Alex’s proposal (though the ax and Phil the monkey made him spell it out in specific terms).

Later that same night, after all the revelry at the inn, thieves attempted to steal the jewelry, but were thwarted and fled. The next morning the group set out on the Celestial Road to Athenia, where Tahiri made her report to the Council, and was acclaimed a full Knight at last. The Council also bade her to continue with the group for a time, as they sensed strange currents in the Force surrounding their endeavors.

Leaving Athenia, Alianna, Elissa, Kitiana, and even Firax1s and Tahiri all felt a moment of unease shudder through Toril’s Weave as the Calcification took hold. The group then traveled to Waterdeep, to visit the Thann’s townhouse, so that Alex could officially ask Kitiana’s father permission to marry her. As we ended the night, permission had been given, and Khelben (who had been invited to dinner at Kitiana’s request) agreed to research the poem/prophesy the group held, to see if he could wring any more insights from it…

We left the group facing a large number of monks and mechanicals in one of the courtyards of the Sargonnan Monestary on Ch’krynn. As we rejoin them, the battle rages on, and begins to look fairly bleak for our heroes. Nearly everyone has sustained serious injuries, and the leader of the force sent to engage the group blithely carves his way through Omi in his path towards Tahiri, killing the young druid.

In the end, however, the Fists hare are defeated, though the mechanicals flee the scene once their living commanders are slain. Several smaller, off-camera fights ensue as the group forces their way to the tower where Gosp and the flying ship are moored.

As the group emerges from the final flight of stairs, the last group boarding the ship turns to deal with them at Gosp’s command. While half the force makes it across the ramp to the group, half does not, and is callously thrown to their deaths by one of Gosp’s associates when he flings the ramp into the courtyard 120’ below in an effort to prevent the group from reaching the ship.

Tahiri uses the group’s flying carpet to reach Gosp, and kills him with a critical hit on her first blow. others soon join her through a dimension door provided by Firax1s, but the group reconsiders their idea when dozens more of the monks come flowing up the ramps out of the hold; perhaps retreat is more viable?

As we ended the night, the group was on their way northward again towards Palanthus, hoping to catch the Celestial Road directly back to Athenia so that Tahiri could make her report to the Council…